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Moulton Library
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From the library of
the Rev. Robert Howard
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/?^^ea>7^ School
Theology
Library
Fifty Missionary Heroes Every
Boy and Girl Should Know
Fifty Missionary Heroes
Every Boy and Girl Should Know
By
JULIA H. lOHNSTON
« These Heroes of the former days
Deserved and gained their never-fading bays/'
ILLUSTRATED
Fleming H. Revell Company
COPYRIGHT MCMXIII BY FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
All rights reserved
Westwood, New Jersey
Printed in the United States of America
f
1.20
Inscribed to
The Boys and Girls of our To-Day,
Who fare along Time's opening way.
Still looking forward, blithe and free.
To find what each may do and see.
To you, exuberant with life.
Exultant, even in the strife.
To you, so rich in buoyant hope.
And fearing not with ills to cope.
We look expectantly, and cry
Concerning daytimes passing by.
While thinking of the future track.
Take ample time for looking back
To see where Hero-souls have trod.
Along the way that leads to God —
The path of faith and helpful deeds.
For souls a-thrill with others' needs.
To you, with pulses beating high.
Hath Opportunity come nigh.
What pathways open, wide and far !
Whate'er you do. Whoe'er you are.
Be quick to find and fill your place.
For your To-morrows come apace.
J.H.J.
Peoria, Illinois,
Foreword
THIS rosary of l^ames which the Christian
world will not let die, is presented for
the use of boys and girls who are ready
for their first lessons in deathless history. The
Hero-roll of the whole wide world has furnished
these Names, but not all of those worthy of note
have been taken, since we cannot use the sky for
a scroll.
Stories of those earliest and longest in service
have been told; those of a later day have also been in-
cluded. The aim has been to give some clue to the
personality of each, associating the person with the
place, rather than to give any detailed account of
the work accomplished. Nothing exhaustive has
been attempted in any case, for fear of making it
exhausting to the readers. The childhood and
youth of the characters have been dwelt upon, and
available incidents, showing them to have been
actual boys and girls, have been told, as of special
interest.
The chapters have been arranged with some
reference to the order of time in which the heroes
and heroines lived upon earth, but only in a general
way. The figures given indicate the beginning
and end of the missionary service.
These short and simple stories of heroic Kves may
7
8 Foreword
be used in various ways, aside from finding a place
in Sunday-school libraries, and upon the shelves of
boy and girl readers. Junior Study Classes may
use the volume as a text-book on Hero-studies.
Mission Circles and Bands may find it feasible to
assign characters from month to month, to be read
at home by members, and given verbally at the
meetings — not read from the pages~oh, no I
"Told" stories are far better.
Material may be found between these covers for
supplemental Sunday-school Class- work. One or
two characters may be taken up on specified Sab-
bath days, and the scholars asked to give the
salient points in the five-minute period to spare for
such Mission Studies. For younger scholars, the
better plan may be for the teacher to give verbally
and briefly one little sketch at a time, reviewing the
points of the story the next week. Another plan
is to allow scholars to select " favourite heroes or
heroines " and tell the story in their own words to
the class. Those that have been chosen should be
marked in the book, or a list of them written upon
a fly-leaf, so that the same ones will not be repeated
too often. If familiar stories are told again, they
may be made " guess stories," told without men-
tioning the name which is left to be guessed and
given by the hearers.
Missionary interest must begin in young hearts,
and in the fervent desire to help a little in pre-
empting them for The Cause, these little tales of
great Heroes is sent forth by
The Author.
Contents
1.
The First Missionaries to England
13
II.
Patrick
17
III.
COLUMBA
20
IV.
Raymund Lull ....
First Missionary to the Mohammedans
24
V.
John Eliot
Apostle to the Indians
28
VI.
Thomas Mayhew ....
Missionary to the Indians After He Was
Seventy
37
VII.
Bartholomew Ziegenbalg
Early Missionary to India
34
VIII.
David Brainerd ....
Mis nonary to the Indians at Twenty-four
38
IX.
William Gary ....
Missionary to India
^3
X.
Theodosius Vanderkemp
Missionary to Africa^ When Past Fifty
47
XL
John Adams .....
And the Transformed Island
49
XII.
Henry Martyn ....
Missionary to India and Persia
53
XIII.
GuiDo Fridolin Verbeck
Who Received Japanese Order of The
Rising Sun
57
XIV.
Alexander Duff ....
Missionary to India
60
XV.
Allen Gardiner
Who Went to Patagonia, S. A,
9
64
10
Contents
XVI.
Cyrus Hamlin ....
Founder of Robert College ^ Constantinople
68
XVIL
Robert Moffat ....
Missionary to South Africa
73
XVIII.
Samuel J. Mills ....
The Missionary Who "Never Reached
His Field
78
XIX.
Adoniram Judson ....
Missionary to Burma
82
XX.
The Three Mrs. Judsons
86
XXI.
David Livingstone
For Thirty Tears Missionary to Africa
94
XXIL
David Zeisberger
Apostle to the De law ares
99
XXIII.
Robert Morrison
Founder of Protestant Missions in China
102
XXIV.
Mrs. Hans Egede
Missionary to Greenland
106
XXV.
John Scudder {India) .
First Medical Missionary Sent from
America
109
XXVI.
James Calvert ....
Printer- Missionary to Fiji
III
XXVII.
Fidelia Fiske ....
First Unmarried Woman- Missionary to
Persia
115
XXVIII.
Marcus Whitman
Who Saved Oregon for His Country
119
XXIX.
Eliza Agnew ....
Of Ceylon, Called "The Mother of a
Thousand Daughters "
125
XXX.
James Hannington
'* Lion-hearted Bishop" of Africa
127
XXXI.
Joseph Hardy Neesima
Of Japan, Founder of ''The One En-
deavour Company *'
13J
Contents 1 1
XXXII. Melinda Rankin . . .136
First Protesta?it Missionary io Mexico
XXXIII. Alexander Mackay . . . 140
*'■ Engineer-Missionary '* to Africa
XXXIV. Titus CoAN .... 144
Missionary to Hawaiian Islands
XXXV. foHN G. Paton .... 148
*'The Saint John of the New Heb-
rides'^
XXXVI. Charlotte Maria Tucker
(A. L. O. E.) . . , . 156
Missionary to India
XXXVII. John Coleridge Patteson . .159
**The Martyr of Melanesia "
XXXVIIT Samuel Crowther . . .162
T'he Slave-boy Who Became a Bishop
XXXIX. Mrs. H. C. Mullens . . .165
'*The Lady of the Slippers " {India)
XL. Cornelius Van Alan Van Dyck 168
Of Syria, Translator of the Bible
into Arabic
XLI. Elias Riggs . . . • 171
Missionary to Turkey — Master of
Twelve Languages
XLII. Isabella Thoburn . . .174
Founder of First Woman's College in
India
XLIII. Eleanor Chesnut . . '179
Missionary Martyr of Lien Chou,
China
XLIV. Calvin Wilson Mateer . . 186
Founder of Shantung College, China
XLV. Egerton R. Young . . .191
Missionary Pioneer <ind Pathfinder in
Canada
12 Contents
XLVI. Henry Harris Jessup . . 194
Missionary to Syria for Fifty-four
Tears
XLVII. Mrs. A. R. M'Farland . . 199
The First Missionary in Alaska
XLVin. Sheldon Jackson . . . 205
Apostle to Alaska, Who Introduced the
Reindeer
XLIX. Roll-Call of Living Heroes , 213
L. Missionary Sayings . . . 220
That have Become Classic
Authorities Consulted . 222
In Preparing Hero-Sketches
EAELY MISSIONAEIES IN ENGLAND
Probably in the Third Century
DID you ever think that there could be a
time when England needed missionaries ?
How could that be, when we remember
that our forefathers, who came from there in the
Mayflower^ and in ships that followed, were such
earnest Christians ? It is true that they were, but
remember that there were hundreds of years of
history before the Mayflower^ and that England
could not always have been a Christian country.
It took a long while for the good news to be carried
from Palestine to Eome, and farther on, beyond
Italy.
But Christianity was early introduced into Eng-
land. Gaul (France) had the Gospel first. As
early as 208 a. d. TertuUian wrote, " Farts of
Britain are subject to Christ." Messengers from
Gaul must have told of Jesus. In 314 and 350
A. D. history shows English Bishops present in
Councils, indicating the organization of the Church
of Britain. Bede the historian mentions St. Mar'
tin's Church, where Queen Bertha worshipped,
which must have been before 410 a. d.
About the middle of the sixth century Great
Britain was overrun by Teutonic, or German races
from in and around the Baltic Sea. One of these
races was called Angles, and the part of Britain
IS
14 Fifty Missionary Heroes
where they settled was called East Anglia. In
course of time these Angles spread over the land and
gave the name Angleland, finally becoming Eng-
land, to the whole country. Isn't it interesting ?
Well, in those days of wars and all sorts of ter-
rible things, slavery was common almost every-
where. When men became so poor that they could
not pay their debts, and had nothing to live on,
they often sold themselves into slavery. Sometimes
their creditors sold them for slaves. Many, many
times, captives taken in battle were sold, even in
other countries. One day a new lot of captives was
brought to the city of Rome, where the slave-trade
was a very flourishing business. They were brought
from Angleland. These Angles had yellow hair,
and fair skin.
As these captives, so different in looks from any
one in Rome, were offered for sale, a good man
passed by and saw them. It was a rich Roman
senator, named Gregory, who had built six religious
houses and then a seventh, in which he went to live
himself, becoming its abbot. An abbot is the head
of an abbey, or place of retreat where men are shut
off from the world — they had many such in those
days long ago. This abbot was so kind-hearted,
and so anxious to help others, and really did so
many good deeds, that he was called Gregory the
Great. As this kind man passed the yellow-haired,
fair-skinned captives, he was so pleased with their
looks that he stopped to ask them some questions.
*' Whence do you come ? " said he.
" We are Angles," they answered, " from the
The First Missionaries to England 15
kingdom of Deira." This was then the name of
what is now Yorkshire, England.
" God be gracious to you, my children," said the
abbot kindly. " You are Angles ? You are fair as
angels. You should be Christians. I will go myself
to your land and save your people from the wrath
of God."
But the Idnd abbot's wish and purpose could
not be carried out as far as going himself was
concerned. He was not allowed to go. He was
wanted at home. The pope died soon after, and
Gregory the Great, as he was afterwards known,
was the choice of all the people as the successor.
He did not wish to be pope, and sent a letter to
the emperor asking him to forbid the election, but
somebody took the letter and never delivered it.
Gregory was made pope. He cared neither for
wealth nor authority, but now it was in his power
to do more than before, and, although he could not
go himself to the Angles, he could not forget them,
and did not. The most important thing that he
ever did in his life was to send missionaries to
England. He sent a band of forty, with a leader
from one of his abbeys. The missionaries went
through France, and heard such dreadful things
about the fierce ways of the Angles that they
wrote back begging to be allowed to return home,
but Gregory urged them on. In the year 597 they
crossed over and set foot on the soil of distant
England. But there was a Christian to meet them
after all. Queen Bertha, wife of Ethelbert, was
a daughter of the king of the Franks who had His
l6 Fifty Missionary Heroes
throne in Paris, and she had learned of Jesus Christ
She remembered Him, even in the midst of all the
heathenism about her, and went to pray in a little
church that she had rebuilt. Though Ethelbert
knew who Christians were, he knew very little
about them, and was afraid to meet them anywhere
but outdoors. He thought they would bewitch
him with some spell, in the house, so met them
under a tree.
Because the missionaries came from Kome, they
were more respected, and their good lives spoke for
them. They were given freedom to preach, and
homes, and a church.
The king himself was converted, and afterwards
ten thousand of his people in a day, put themselves
on the side of Christ and the cross. The leader,
Augustine, was made first Bishop of England, and
the king gave him his own palace.
Surely it means much to us that so far back in
history, the Gospel was carried to our ancestors^
Let our thankfulness for this move us to send it od
to others.
II
PATEICK
4S2-Jf.61 (In Ireland)
YOU all know when St. Patrick's Day comes^
in March, and for whom it was named.
But did you ever know that he was a
missionary to Ireland ? When you look him up in
history — where you really can find him, though
some folk think he never actually lived, you will
find him called just plain Patrick; but he was a
good man, which was the principal thing.
Patrick, born late in the fourth century, in South,
west England, as good authorities agree, was the
son of a deacon, probably in the Evangelical British
Church, and grandson of a presbyter, thus having*
Christian training.
When this boy was about sixteen, some wild Irish
raiders came that way, plundering as they went,
and took him as a slave, carrying him away to
what is now known as Connaught. And a hard
time he had of it as a swineherd, or keeper of
pigs, for six long years.
But while in this sad condition of slavery, the
youth began to think earnestly of his heavenly
Father, and began to pray to Him. He often stole
out before daylight to seek Him. At last he man-
aged to escape from captivity, and found his way,
in the midst of dangers, to the coast, where he
17
1 8 Fifty Missionary Heroes
found a vessel ready to sail. The crew was made
up of heathen, and Patrick had a hard time to
coax them to take him along. At last he suc-
ceeded, and always afterwards believed that it was
in answer to his prayers to God. Part of the cargo
consisted of Irish hounds, and the dogs were very
fierce and hard to manage. Patrick seemed to
have a great knack in handling animals, and the
sailors were more reconciled to having him on
board when they saw how well he could manage
the cross dogs.
Three days of sailing brought the ship to France,
but though Patrick wished to be rid of his present
company, who were not pleasant companions, they
did not seem to be in a hurry to part with him.
Perhaps they wanted him to help with the dogs.
At all events, they avoided the towns, and did not
allow him to land very soon. By and by the young
man found a quiet home in a little island in the
Mediterranean Sea. It was a number of years be-
fore he got back to his English home.
Then he had a very wonderful dream, much like
that which Missionary Paul had at Troas, when he
saw that Macedonian who cried, " Come over and
help us." It seemed to Patrick that a messenger
stood by him, bringing letters from Ireland, con-
taining a summons to that country where he had
once been a slave, there to preach the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. He was very sure that this was God's
call to him to be a missionary, and was very anx
ious to obey. He went to France to study, and to
enlist friends who would help him to go. He did
Patrick i^
not have an easy time of it, and it was fourteen
years before he was finally sent to Ireland as a
missionary. He seems to have begun his work
there as a bishop.
From this time, for about twenty -nine years, till
his death, March 17, 461, Patrick laboured in Ire-
land, except for one journey to Eome. He did
many things, but gave most of his time to preach-
ing to the heathen. From all that can be learned
about him, he was a rare Christian, anxious to serve
Jesus Christ, and full of enthusiasm. He carried
the Gospel much farther than the power of Eome
extended in Britain. He founded monasteries from
which, later, others went, like Columba, as mission-
aries to western Scotland, northern England, to
Italy and Germany, and even to far-oif Iceland.
When Patrick died, he was buried in the county
of Down. His was a long and busy life, and after
what he considered God's call, he never wavered in
the belief that he was set apart to missionary work,
nor in his earnest labours. A great many stories
have been made up about this man that are like
fairy tales, so that it is hard to believe that he was
a real man. But there is enough history to prove
that he was a real man and a missionary, and that
he did a great deal of good in a time when hea-
thenism and superstition placed many hindrances in
the way of the work. Remember the truth about
him, when next St. Patrick's Day comes round.
The above facts have been culled from a fuller history of Pat-
rick in the book, ''Great Men of the Christian Church," by
Williston Walker, professor in Yale University, published 1908,
iir
COLUMBA
The Latter Part of the Sixth Century
THE name of this stout missionary of the
latter part of the sixth century ought to
be remembered, for he did faithful work
and did not spare himself. We are told that in his
early life Columba was very fond of reading, of
fighting, and of praying, and he seemed to find
time to do a good deal of each ; but the reading and
praying belonged especially to the missionary part
of his life.
Columba was the pioneer missionary in the north
of Great Britain. In his time there were man}?
churches in Ireland and Colum of the Kil (the cell
or church), as his Irish name was, spent much time
in visiting them. One of the first adventures told
of this man was in connection with a book. He
liked to read, but must have something to read. In
those days one must buy, borrow, or copy a book if
he wanted one. They had no printing-presses, you
know, in those days. But in Ireland there were
fine writers who could make beautiful copies of
books, colouring the initials, and ornamenting the
pages in a wonderful way.
Colum of the Kil had a neighbour, named
Finnian, who had a gospel book which he copied
with great pains and labour. He had to sit up
20
Columba 2 1
nights after his day's work to do it. But when he
wanted to take it home, Finnian said the book was
his because copied from his. He called it " The Son-
book " or the son of his book, and said " To every
book belongs its son-book, as to a cow belongs its
calf." Unfair as it was, Columba had to give up
the copy he had made.
There were terribly bloody doings in Ireland in
those times, and they say Columba helped in some
of the fights, though at one time they said he prayed
while his relations did the fighting. But finally the
man left the warring country, and with a few friends
set out to find a new home, sailing away in a little
wicker boat. As long as they could see a glimpse
of Ireland they would not land. Finally they
came to the little island of lona, only three miles
wide in its widest part, and there the exiles landed.
The island is off the west coast of Scotland. Some-
how the wanderers got together a rude shelter, and
a place to worship God. Then they began their
voyages to the mainland round about. In the
southern part of Scotland lived the Scots, and when
Columba and his friends reached there, a new king
had just begun to rule. Columba blessed an(J
crowned this king, who had a rough sort of palace
at Scone. It is said that the king sat on a big,
rough stone to be crowned. When the English con-
quered Scotland, they brought this stone with them
to London, where it is to this day. The Stone ol
Scone is in the Coronation Chair of England. You
all know that, perhaps. You heard about it when
Kin^ George was crowned. But perhaps you did
22 Fifty Missionary Heroes
not know that the first king crowned in Gi^at
Britain was blessed and crowned by Columba, a
missionary of the sixth century.
All the missionaries who shared the work of
Columba were trained at lona, and from there
went on their adventurous journeys. The men
from lona founded a mission station on another
little island, off the east coast of England. They
were not afraid of journeying, you see.
The Gospel was taken to Northumbria, and there
the king called a conference of his chief men to
talk over the new religion. One said that the gods
of his fathers had done nothing for him, and he
was willing to try a new God. Another, who must
have been a sort of a poet, said, " Our life is like the
flight of a bird through our lighted hall. In comes
the bird out of the dark, flies about a little while
in the light of our torches, and flies out again into
the dark. So we come out of the dark, and go into
the dark. If these strangers can tell us anything
better, let us listen."
The principal one in all the missionary journeys
was Columba. He was a great, big man, with
stout arms, a broad chest, and a voice like the
bellowing of an ox. He loved to send his little
boat out into the fiercest storm. The ground was
his bed, and his food was coarse. He carried his
corn to mill on his own back, ground it, and brought
it back again. He loved to study and to pray,
though he was a good fighter, too. His heart was
warm, and his people loved him.
By and by old age came on. One day he gave
Columba 23
his blessing to all those working under him, and,
after looking over all the land, sat down to rest
beside the barn while an old Avhite horse came and
laid his head against his breast. Then he went in.
He had been copying the Psalms, and now came
to the verse which was, as he wrote it : " They who
seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that
is good." There he laid down his pen. He went into
the little church, and was found kneeling there next
morning, his work done.
IV
EAYMUND LULL
First Missionary to the Mohammedans {1290-1315)
YOU have heard of the Mohammedans, of
course. Mohammed was the man who felt
that he had received m visions a command
to found a new religion. The principal thing that
one had to believe was in this sentence ; " There is
one God and Mohammed is His prophet." Prayers
five times a day, no matter where one might be,
were to be offered regularly. The followers of
this new prophet of a false religion were sent out
everywhere to make converts, and they used the
sword to make men believe. If one refused, he
had his head cut off. There were soon a great
many of these followers in the world, and you can
see that they needed a missionary very much.
The Mohammedans got possession of the Holy
Land, and it was to dri^ e out these infidels that the
Crusades were undertaken in the eleventh, twelfth
and thirteenth centuries. The Crusades were the
"armies of the cross," led by different kings and
other leaders to the city of Jerusalem.
It was in this time of great events that Raymund
Lull, the first missionary to the Mohammedan world,
lived his life. He was born in 1235. Just count
up now, and see how many years it is since this
missionary was a new-born baby.
21
Raymund Lull 25
His birthplace was the Island of Majorca, off the
east coast of what is now Spain, part of which was
then called Aragon. When King James I of Ara-
gon took this island from the Saracens, he gave
large estates in it to the father of Eaymund Lull,
who had rendered his king distinguished service.
The sovereigns of Aragon changed very often.
Twenty proud kings reigned in a period of about
four hundred years. The capital of the kingdom
was Saragossa, and here, in the court, young Eay-
mund Lull spent several years of his life, being
court poet, and a skilled musician in the reign of
James 11. He had a rare mind and was an accom-
plished scholar, which gave him a high place among
men. Besides this, he was heir to large wealth,
and lived the life of a gay knight in the king's
court before he became an ardent missionary.
He was thirty-two when the great change came,
and his conversion seems to have been very much
like that of Saul of Tarsus. It was in the city of
Palma that the young man's whole life and aims
were altered. At once he sold his property and
gave all to the poor, except enough to support his
wife and children in a simple way. Before long,
he made up his mind to attack Mohammedanism or
Islam, as it was called, not with the sword of steel
but with the sword of Truth. He put on the dress
of a beggar and went about among the churches
of his native island, asking help for his work. In
this, the thirteenth century, Islam had the greatest
power in the world, and claimed more political
influence and greater advances in science and
26 Fifty Missionary Heroes
poetry, than any of the nations. Against this
mighty power Kaymund Lull meant to lead the
attack, using the Aveapons of love and learning
only, not the force and fanaticism of the Crusades.
To accomplish his aim he began a thorough study
of Arabic, the language of a large part of the ori-
ental world. He also spent much time in medita-
tion. He was about forty years old before he was
ready to enter upon the life-work that he had
planned as author and missionary, for he began to
be a great writer. One of the first things he did
at this time was to persuade King James II of
Aragon to found and endow a monastery, where
men should be taught the Arabic language, and
should learn how to meet the Mohammedans in
discussion, with learning equal to their own. Thir-
teen students were soon enrolled in this training
school.
But Eaymund Lull was not content. He longed
for world-wide missions. He had spent some years
in getting ready himself, and in helping the work
at home. ]S"ow, at fifty-five, he decided to go alone
to preach Christ in northern Africa. When he got
to Tunis, he gave out the word widely that he was
ready to debate with the Mohammedans, for he
had studied both sides, and would answer whatever
might be said. This was a great debate. The mis-
sionary proved the Truth, and some believed. But
others were angry, and the missionary was thrown
into prison, narrowly escaping death.
After great persecutions he got away to Europe,
but he made other missionary journeys, and, fifteep
Raymund Lull 27
years after his banishment, was again on the shores
of northern Africa, in the stronghold of Moham-
medanism. At the age of sixty-five he journeyed
through Cyprus, Syria, and other countries on his
missionary work. Returning to northern Africa
he stood up in a public place and proclaimed the
Truth, in Arabic, in the boldest way. Again he
was imprisoned, but some merchants took pity on
him, and finally he escaped with sentence of ban-
ishment. He was told that if he ever came back
he should die. He could not stay away, and came
back in 1314, quietly teaching, and praying with
converts, till his fiery zeal led him again to the
market-place to preach to those who had perse-
cuted him. He was seized and dragged out of town
where he was stoned to death, a brave martyr for
Christ, eighty years old.
He wrote one hundred and eighty books, estab-
lished missionary colleges, and gave his life for the
CausCo
I'^m^m^^m'
JOHN ELIOT
ApMle to the Indians (1645-1690)
COME, let. us take a thought-journey b&ck
over two hundred and fifty years. Can
you do it ? Of course you can. You
can think back thousands of years to the Flood, or
to the Garden of Eden,
for that matter. You can
think back much farther
than you can remember.
Let us imagine that we
are about eighteen miles
southwest of Boston, on
the Charles Eiver, in the
town with the Indian
name, Natick. There
seems to be something interesting going on in this
little place, with woods around it. Look at the people
coming together. Why — they are red men. Yes,
they are Indians. Let us not be afraid of them.
They are red, but they do not look fierce and wild.
Now, see ! A horseman is coming near. What a
good face he has. He has come from Eoxbury, we
bear, where he has long been the pastor of a
church. How kindly he greets the Indians. And
now we hear what is to be done to-day. These
28
John Eliot 29
Indians are to be formed into a church of their own.
It is the minister, Rev. John Eliot, of Roxbury,
who has gathered the red men together. Every
two weeks he comes to preach to them. In ten
years we find that there are fifty of these " Pray-
ing Indians," as they are called.
Surely we wish to know something about the
good man who has done so much for these children
of the forest, who were in our land when the Pil-
grims came.
John Eliot was born in England in 1604. The
father died before the son was very far along in
his education, and he left eight pounds a year to be
used, for eight years, in keeping his boy at Cam-
bridge University. After finishing at Cambridge,
John Eliot taught school. He became a minister
of the Church of England when he was twenty-
seven years old, and soon after that came to
America with three brothers and three sisters.
Miss Hannah Mumford, to whom he was engaged,
came the next year, and they were married — the
first marriage to be put down in the records of
Roxbury, Massachusetts. For sixty years this good
minister was settled over Roxbury church.
But his heart yearned over the Indians. He
believed that they had souls to be saved, and he
felt that he must tell them of the Saviour. It was
not easy to win them at first, but the minister was
so kind and friendly that by and by the red men
became devoted to him. Across the country he
went, once a fortnight, as you know, riding on
horseback to preach to his Indians. One aftei
30 Fifty Missionary Heroes
another he formed more settlements of Praying
Indians. He taught them other things besides the
Bible. He showed them how to raise crops, to
build bridges, to make houses and homes, and how
to clothe themselves properly. He made them
comfortable, and by getting help from others, he
made it possible for them to work, and to live as
did their civihzed brothers.
The red men had a government of their own
among themselves, and it was wonderful how well
they got on. Mr. Eliot was forty-one when he
began to preach to them. In fourteen years there
were thirty-six hundred Praying Indians. The
government set apart six thousand acres of land
for them.
After preaching a while, and explaining the
Word of God, Mr. Eliot thought that these people
ought to have the Bible in their own language. A
very queer language it was, and hard to learn, but
the good minister was not discouraged by that. He
had the help of an Indian, taken captive in the
Pequot War, in the work of translation. It was
finished and printed in 1663, and was the very first
Bible ever printed in America. Later, a revised
version was printed at an expense of nine hundred
pounds. Mr. Eliot gave towards this from his own
small salary, the rest of the money coming from
England. There are very few copies of this Indian
Bible to be found now. One sold for five hundred
and fifty pounds a while ago in England. Some
words had to be supplied ; the Indians had no word
for " salt/* nor for •' Amen."
John Eliot 31
Three years after the first printing of the Bible
the busy missionary printed the grammar for the
Indians. At the end of it he wrote this sentence
which has become historic everywhere : " Prayer
and pains, through faith in Jesus Christ, will do
anything." Do you not wish to stop right here,
and say that over, until you know it by heart ?
Please do. It will help you.
There are only fourteen or fifteen copies of the
first edition of this grammar now to be found.
Mr. Eliot had a salary of only sixty pounds for
his work in Eoxbury and fifty for his Indian work,
but he was one of the most generous men that ever
lived. One time the treasurer, on giving him the
money then due, tied it up in a handlierchief to
keep him from giving away any of it. Visiting a
poor family on the way home, and wishing to help
them, the minister found the knots too hard to
untie, and gave the kerchief to the mother, saying,
" God must have meant it all for you."
He died in 1690, at the age of eighty-six, but is
still unforgotten.
YI
THOMAS MAYHEW
Who Began Missionary Work Among the Indians When
He Was Seventy {1658-1680)
SUCH a valiant soul ought surely to be in
eluded in the list of Heroes. Some folk
think their work is done at seventy, but not
so Mr. Thomas Mayhew, the New Englander,
Governor of Martha's Vineyard and adjacent
islands, in the far-back year of 1641. However,
his missionary work did not begin that year, and
it did begin first of all in the giving of his son to
devote his life to the Indians. Kev. Thomas May-
hew, Jr., was first a minister to the settlers in his
neighbourhood but extended his service of love to
the thousands of red men thereabouts.
His first accomplishment was the mastery of the
native language. He was very successful in this,
and soon had a flourishing mission. The first con-
vert was named Hiacoomes. He put himself under
Mr. Mayhew's instruction, and became a teacher, and
afterwards a preacher to his own people. The very
first school in ]^ew England for the benefit of the
Indians was established in 1651. In another year
a church was organized. There were two hundred
and eighty-two members. The " covenant," which
all agreed to accept as church-members, was re-
pared in the Indian tongue by Mr. Mayhew.
32
Thomas Mayhew 33
About five years after this, the earnest missionary
set out for England, to get money for his mission.
He was lost at sea.
Then it was that his father, the governor, at the
age of seventy, determined to take his son's place,
and bravely began the study of the native language.
Heroes are not all young men, you see, although
many begin very early to be heroic.
This staunch missionary began preaching at the
different plantations week by week in turn, some-
times walking twenty miles through the woods to
meet his Indian congregations. In 1670 was or-
ganized the first Indian church with a native pastor.
There were then about three thousand native Chris-
tians upon the island.
The indefatigable Mr. Mayhew kept on with his
missionary work until he died, in his ninety-third
vear. Is not this a wonderful record ?
His grandson, John, became associated with the
work and was active in it until he died in 1688,
when his son. Experience, took it up, and continued
it for thirty-two years. In 1709 he translated the
Psalms and John's Gospel.
Surely this is a family that should not be forgot-
ten.
YII
BAETHOLOMEW ZIEGEKBALG
Missionary to India {1706-1719)
THIS missionary with the long name was
once a baby no bigger than ordinary
infants, but in the short life that he livea
he made his name to be a shining memory in history.
He was born in June,
1683, in Pullsnitz, Sax-
ony. He grew up in a
Christian home, and early
showed a talent for learn-
ing. He was sent to the
University of Halle where
he made a good record
for talent, diligence, and
Christian zeal.
Among the early helpers in mission work was
King Frederick lY of Denmark, who became so
earnest in his desires to help Christianize the world
that, as one of the things in his power, he directed
Professor Frank of Halle to choose two promising
students from the university to go as missionaries
to South India, in 1705. One of these was Barthol-
omew Ziegenbalg, and the other, Henry Plutsho,
Vjth ready and eager to take up the mission.
After a long and wearisome voyage of many
34
Bartholomew Ziegenbalg 35
months, they arrived at Tranquebar, a Danish pos-
session on the coast of Hindustan. The governor
kept them waiting for several days before con-
senting to see them, and then received them with
great harshness. Ziegenbalg got a small room for
himself in the Portuguese quarters, and began his
missionary work under the greatest difficulties you
can imagine. His comrade was gone elsewhere,
the governor was opposed to him, and the European
population of the city, engaged in money -making,
cared nothing for missions. The idolatrous natives
were ready to resist every effort to teach them a
new religion. All these people wished nothing so
much as to get rid of the missionary.
But this they could not do, since he was deter-
mined to stay. He had no grammar with which
to learn the language, nor any dictionary to help
him. At last he persuaded a native schoolmaster
to bring his little school to the room where he
lived that he might see how the children were
taught. The scholars sat on the floor and made
letters in the sand. The missionary sat down beside
them, and imitated them till he knew the shape of
all the characters that they made. Then he found
a Brahman, one of the high caste men, who knew a
little English, and by his help learned to speak the
Tamil language in eight months. You must re-
member that there are many languages and dialects
in India. The people do not all speak the same
tongue, as Americans do.
The rajah finding out about the Brahman teacher,
he was loaded with chains and cast into prison.
2Jb Fifty Missionary Heroes
poor man. Some of the Europeans, in India for
getting gain, owned slaves. The missionary, pity-
ing these poor creatures, and unable at once to find
others to teach, asked leave to teach these. He
was allowed to do it for two hours daily, and the
wretched outcasts came to him gladly. In less
than a year five slaves were baptized.
Missionary Ziegenbalg built a native church with
his own money, and at its dedication preached in
Tamil and in Portuguese to a congregation of
Christians, Hindus and Mohammedans. The sec-
ond year he went about on extensive preaching
tours. In one place where there Tvas a Dutch
magistrate, the most learned Brahmans were in-
vited by him to hold a conference with the stran-
ger. It lasted five days, and a great deal of truth
was given to them in this way.
In two years after reaching India, Ziegenbalg
had mastered the Tamil language so thoroughly
that he could speak it almost as readily as he could
his native German, and was ready to begin trans-
lations. He began to prepare a grammar and two
lexicons, one in prose and one in poetical form — a
great undertaking, this last, it seems to me. Tamil
prose would be hard enough, but to translate any-
thing into Tamil poetry would be far harder. Yet
the missionary undertook it, because he thought it
wise, and in 1811 he finished translating the New
Testament into Tamil — the first translation of this
Book into any language spoken in India. He kept
on preaching to Hindus, slaves, Portuguese, and
even had a German service, largely attended. Be
Bartholomew Ziegenbalg 37
sides the New Testament, he prepared a Danish
Liturgy, German hymns, and a dictionary, with
^hirty-thi^ee other works, translated into Tamil.
These were printed nine years after his arrival in
India.
But now the missionary's health failed, and the
next year he went home. He was able to go about
telling his story of the far-off field, and it was a
thrilling account. His glowing words impressed
many in Germany and England, and kings, princes
and prelates gave generously to the work, while
crowds gathered to hear him.
In four years he returned to India, soon to finish
his course. He died at thirty-six, after thirteen
years of pioneer work in the period of modern
missions. At his death there were three hundred
and fifty converts, and a large number of cate-
chumens, to mourn his loss and to carry on his
noble work. His life had "answered life's great
end."
VIII
DAVID BRAINEED
Missionary to the Indians at Twenty-four (^174:2-1747)
DO you know how it is possible to live a
very long life in a very few years ? Per
haps you have heard the secret told in
these words: "He liveth long, who liveth well."
The young missionary to
the Indians of long ago
proved this to be true by
his short, heroic, useful
life.
In 1718 the little vil-
lage of Haddam, Con-
necticut, was indeed a
small one, but there, in
April of that year, a
Daby was born who grew up into the man and the
missionary that all who know anything of missions
to-day, love to think about.
When David Brainerd was only nine, his father
died, and five years later the death of his mother
left him a lonely orphan. For a while he became
a farmer's boy, and earned his living by his work
out-of-doors. Then he went to live with a good
minister, who gave him a chance to study, for the
boy was very anxious to go to college. To Yale
38
David Brainerd 39
he went, while still quite young, and remained
three years. There were no theological seminaries
then, as now, to prepare young men to be ministers,
but they studied with older ministers, and were
made ready to preach in this way. Young Brain-
erd studied with different ministers, until the year
1742. Although he was then but twenty-four, he
was considered ready to preach, and was sent out
upon his chosen life-work as a missionary to the
Indians.
At first, the intention was to send him to the
tribes in Kew Jersey and Pennsylvania, but, be-
cause of some trouble among them there, the young
missionary was sent instead to the Stockbridge
Indians in Massachusetts.
Oh, but he had a hard time in the very begin-
ning. You know, perhaps, that Solomon, the wise
man, says that it is " good for a man to bear the
yoke in his youth." It was certainly given to this
young man to do this. !N"o comfortable home was
open to him, and he lived with a poor Scotchman,
whose wife could hardly speak a word of English.
I^othing better than a heap of straw laid upon
some boards was provided for lodging, and as for
food — what do you think he had ? We know ex-
actly, for the missionary kept a journal, and in it
he wrote — " My diet is hasty pudding (mush), boiled
corn, bread baked in the ashes, and sometimes a
little meat and butter." He adds, "I live in a
log house without any floor. My work is exceed-
ingly hard and difficult. I travel on foot a mile
and a half the worst of ways, almost daily, and
40 Fifty Missionary Heroes
back again, for I live so far from my Indians."
He writes that the presence of God is what he
wants, and he longs to " endure hardness as a good
soldier of Jesus." The Indians, from the first,
seemed to be generally kind, and ready to listen,
but, in the beginning, the work was slow.
The young missionary's heart was troubled for
his poor red men, because the Dutch claimed their
lands, and threatened to drive them off. They
seemed to hate him because he tried to teach the
Indians the way of life. At this time there was
but a single person near with whom he could talk
English. This person was a young Indian with
eighteen letters in his last name, which was far
enough from being " English." You may do your
best at pronouncing it. It was " Wauwaumpequen-
naunt." Fortunately his first name was John !
The exposure and hardships of these days brought
on illness from which the missionary suffered all
through his brief life. He tells in his journal of
spending a day in labour to get something for his
horse to eat, after getting a horse, but it seems as
if he had little use of it, for he was often without
bread for days together, because unable to find
his horse in the woods to go after it. He was so
weak that he needed something besides boiled corn,
but had to go or send, ten or fifteen miles, to get
bread of any kind. If he got any considerable
quantity at a time, it was often sour and moldy
before he could eat it all.
He did not write complainingly of all this, but
he did make a joyful entry one day, giving thanks
David Brainerd 41
to God for His great goodness, after he had been
allowed to bestow in charitable uses, to supply
great needs of others, a sum of over one hundred
pounds New England money, in the course of fif-
teen months. It was truly, to him, " More blessed
to give than to receive." He was thankful, he
said, to be a steward to distribute what really
belonged to God.
After two years' labour among the Stockbridge
Indians, Mr. Brainerd went to New Jersey, his red
brothers parting from him sorrowfully. The com-
missioners unexpectedly sent him to the Delaware
Forks Indians. This meant that he must return to
settle up affairs in Massachusetts and go back again
to the new field. The long rides must be taken on
horseback, the nights spent in the woods, wrapped
in a greatcoat, and lying upon the ground. The
missionary had flattering offers of pulpits in large
churches where he would have had the comforts of
life, but he steadfastly refused to leave his beloved
Indians.
In the midst of difficulties and hardships he
gladly toiled on. Travelling about as he did, he
was often in peril of his life along the dangerous
ways. On one trip to visit the Susquehanna In-
dians, the missionary's horse hung a leg over the
rocks of the rough way, and fell under him. It
was a narrow escape from death, but he was not
hurt, though the poor horse's leg was broken, and,
being thirty miles from any house, he had to kill
the suffering animal and go the rest of the way on
Coot.
42 Fifty Missionary Heroes
The last place of heroic service was in New
Jersey, at a place called Cross weeksung. Here the
missionary was gladly received, and spent two busy
and fruitful years, preaching to the red men, visit-
ing them in their wigwams, comforting and helping
them in every way, being their beloved friend and
counsellor at all times. At last he became so weak
that he could not go on. A church and school
being established, the way was made easier for
another. Hoping to gain strength to return to his
red brothers, David Brainerd went to New Eng-
land for rest, and was received gladly into the
home of Kev. Jonathan Edwards. Here he failed
very rapidly, but his brave spirit was so full of joy
that his face shone as with the light of heaven.
He said, " My work is done." He died, October 9,
1747, at the age of twenty-nine. He opened the
way for others to serve his Indians, and his life has
helped many, and has sent others into the field
through all these years since the young hero was
called and crowned. The story of his life influenced
William Carey, Samuel Marsden and Henry Mar-
tyn to become missionaries. Through these, David
Brainerd spoke to India, to New Zealand and tc
Persia.
IX
WILLIAM OAEEY
(*' T^ Conaecrated Cobbler ")
Missionary to India (179S-18S3)
THERE was a young man long ago in
England who asked some ministers if the
Church had done all it could for the
heathen, and received this answer : " Young man,
sit down. When God
pleases to convert the
heathen world, He will
do it without your help
or mine." Who was the
venturesome young man ?
William Carey.
Who was it that said
afterwards, " Expect
great things from God ,
attempt great things for God " ? William Carey.
Who was it that later said, when some one was
talking of the great mine of heathenism, asking,
"Who will go down?" "I will, but remember
that you must hold the ropes " ? William Carey,
missionary to India for forty years. Tuck into
your memory these three things, and keep them
there, for they are worth remembering.
William Carey is called the father of modern
missions. Of course we want to know something
43
44 Fifty Missionary Heroes
about him. In the year 1761, he was born in a
lowly cottage, in the little town of Paulersbury in
England. His father was a schoolmaster. In this
village the boy spent the first fourteen years
of his life, and his father gave him the best educa-
tion he could. But at fourteen the boy was his
own master. " The bench was his seat of literature,
and the shoemaker's stall his hall of learning."
The boy who, when but six years old, used to repeat
sums in arithmetic to his mother, which he had
worked out in his own mind, was not likely to stop
learning at fourteen. He finished whatever he
began. He used every chance he had. The room
where he worked was filled with insects in every
corner, and he delighted to watch them growing.
He collected birds, butterflies, and animals, and
was also fond of drawing and painting. He was
an active fellow, and fond of the things boys love
to do. He was a great favourite with those of Ms
own age. As a shoemaker's apprentice, William
Carey did his work so well that his master kept a
pair of shoes to show William's good work.
While still a youth, he gave his heart to Christ,
and was sometimes asked to speak in meetings in a
little Baptist chapel which he attended. Thirty
years afterwards, the minister who baptized the
young man said, "In 1783 I baptized a poor
journeyman shoemaker, little thinking that before
nine years had passed he would prove the first
instrument in forming a society for sending mission
aries to the heathen, but such was the case."
At length the church encouraged the young
William Carey 45
man to enter on the work of preaching, as he
longed to do. But his master died, and the ap-
prentice began work for himself to pay expenses
while preaching. He married at twenty, and had
his family to support. He preached three years
at Barton, wall^ing six miles there and back.
Then he had a church in Mouiton, where he had a
salary of seventy-live dollars a year. He could
not live on this — do you wonder? — and tried to
teach school. This was a failure and he went back
to shoemaking. But he and his family lived very
sparingly, often going without meat for a month at
a time. After two or three years he moved to
Leister and built up a church there. All this time
he managed somehow to do much studying. He
mastered the Latin grammar in six weeks, and the
Dutch language in a wonderfully short time. Greek
and Hebrew were learned without a teacher. In
seven years he could read his Bible in six languages.
He bought a French book for a few pence and in
three weeks could read it. He found it so easy to
learn a new language that it was an amusement to
spread out a book before him and study as he worked.
By and by the shoemaker preacher was asked to
preach before an association of ministers. It was
then and there that he said " Expect great things
from God ; attempt great things for God." As a
result of that sermon, a Society for Propagating the
Gospel among the Heathen was formed, in the
little parlour of a lady named Mrs. Wallis. She
loved to remember this, and her eyes glistened,
when it was mentioned.
46 Fifty Missionary Heroes
Very soon Mr. Carey decided to go himself as a
missionary. His wife felt that she could not go.
There were four children, one of them a baby.
The minister said he would take his oldest son and
go, hoping the mother and the rest would follow.
But before he sailed, the mother decided to go, and
the whole family set out for India. It took five
months for the voyage. On arriving, there were
dreadful times and many hardships before a place
could be found for the family, and Mr. Carey had
CO take what work he could get to support them.
The money brought with them was gone, and the
one trusted with it for the company of missionaries
did not spend it wisely. Fifteen thousand miles
from home, the only way to get more was to work
for it. Mr. Carey said that he would not depend
on the society at home, but would support himself,
and sent for seeds and plants for a large garden.
Soon after, the five-year-old son Eobert died, and
no one could be found to make or to carry the
coffin. Men were afraid to touch the little body.
Soon the missionary work began, though with many
trials. After five years he went to Serampore,
where his great work was done. After seven years
in India, he baptized the first Hindu convert, who
lived to preach for twenty years afterwards.
A wonderful work was done by the Mission
Press. Before Dr. Carey died, 212,000 copies of
the Scriptures had been sent out in forty different
languages among three hundred millions of people.
After forty years' labour as missionary, professor,
and translator, he fell asleep in Jesus.
THEODOSIUS YANDEEKEMP
Who Went as a Missionary to Africa, When Past Fiftif
Years Old (^1799-1811)
IT is never too late to make a fresh beginning
if Duty calls. This famous Hollander, who
was born at Rotterdam in 1747, became emi-
nent as scholar, soldier, and physician, before he
became the only medical
missionary in Africa, at
the beginning of the
nineteenth century.
Dr. Yanderkemp's
father was a minister
of the Dutch Reformed
Church. His son studied
at the University of Ley-
den, and was well edu-
cated. He spent sixteen years in the army, where
he was captain of horse, and lieutenant of dragoons
— a valiant soldier.
Leaving the army, he went to Edinburgh. Here
he became distinguished for his attainments in the
modern languages and natural sciences. You can
see that he was a very learned man. By and by
he went back to Holland, and practiced medicine
with great success. It seems that he could do
many things well.
A great sorrow came to him in the death of his
47
48 Fifty Missionary Heroes
wife and child in a shocking accident. This led to
his becoming a Christian, and turning his thoughts
to service for Jesus Christ. He offered himself as
a missionary to the London Missionary Society for
work in South Africa. He was ordained as a min-
ister, and sailed in 1798, when past fifty. He went
in a convict ship, and busied himself on the voyage
in ministering to the spiritual and physical needs
of the convicts.
After labouring in different places, and being
ordered by the king to leave, with sixty followers,
after establishing one station. Dr. Yanderkemp be-
gan special work for the Hottentots. In seven
years those who gathered for worship numbered
fully a thousand. The cruelties of the slave traffic
so distressed the good doctor that, in three years,
he paid $5,000 to redeem poor captives. Finally,
by his efforts, aided by others, the Hottentots were
made free. It was said that this missionary was
wonderfully like the apostles of the early Church.
His service was not long, for he died in 1811, after
only about twelve years in Africa. For a hundred
years the Kaffir converts were called by his name.
Dr. Moffat said of this brave missionary : " He
came from a university to teach the poor naked
Hottentots and Kaffirs ; from the society of nobles,
to associate with the lowest of humanity; from
stately mansions, to the hut of the greasy African ;
from the study of medicine to become a guide to
the Balm of Gilead ; . . . and from a life ol
earthly honour and ease, to perils of waters, of rob
bers. and of the heathen, in city ond wilderness."
XI
J0H:C^ ADAMS AND THE TEANSFOKMED
ISLAND (Fitcairn)
1789-1829
NOW you shall hear a very wonderful story
of what came about through one copy of
the Bible and one man, in a tiny island
in the Paciflc Ocean.
The little speck of an island, but two and a
quarter miles long, and one mile broad, is about
1,200 miles from Tahiti. This is a tale of the
South Seas.
In the year 1767 (how long ago ?) Captain Car'
teret, of Great Britain, was cruising round in those
latitudes, and with him a young midshipman named
Pitcairn. He was the first to discover the hitherto
unknown island, and gave it his name. The poor
young man died not long after. His naming of
the island went down in the ship's log-book, and
the next man who made a chart of the South Seas
put a new dot on it for Pitcairn, and that was the
last of this speck in the ocean for a long, long time.
Twenty years after, the good ship Bounty, Ayiiig
the British flag, took her way homeward with
plants of the breadfruit tree, which the govern-
ment wished to introduce into the West Indies.
Captain Bligh was in command. The master's
mate was Fletcher Christian, a bright young man,
49
JO Fifty Missionary Heroes
but quick-tempered and revengeful. The captain
was not as wise and kind as he might have been,
and the mate was ready to resent everything, so
that there was a bad state of feeling on board. At
last Fletcher Christian, who was not well named,
led the men in a mutiny. They overpowered the
captain and his handful of faithful men, put them
into a small boat loaded to the water's edge, within
a few inches, and carrying a small allowance of
provisions, and sent them adrift. It is dreadful to
think of.
The mutineers then turned the vessel back to
Tahiti, where they told a lie to account for their
return, saying the captain had gone, with some of
his crew, in another boat, with a friend, met on the
sea. But the wicked men were in terror every
moment, afraid they would be found out somehow
and pursued to their death. They left the island,
landed upon another, leaving some of the men be-
hind, and taking some natives of Tahiti with them.
They tried to build a barricade, but the work
did not go well, and soon the Bounty was at sea
again. Then was discovered the little island ol
Fitcairn, that seemed so solitary and forsaken that
it promised safety. They landed and took up theif
residence there.
Let us imagine the scene. The men unload the
chip and cast all her lading upon the shore. If we
look carefully, we shall see an old Bible among the
things tossed down. Now it is decided to " burr
their bridges " by burning the ship, and soon the
Bounty is a mass of flame, burning to the water's
John Adams and the Transformed Island 51
edge. [Now these men must live with the savages
brought with them, and see their English homes
no more.
But shall we follow Captain Bligh and crew, set
adrift nearly four thousand miles from any European
settlement, with scanty supplies of food and water ?
They dare not land upon unknown islands for fear
of being killed by savages. With two cocoanut
shells for scales, and a leaden bullet for a weight,
the captain daily measures and weighs the supplies
for each man. Sometimes the storm-tossed boat
quivers between waves " mountain-high " as the
story-books say. Daily they pray for help, and
God is good. At last they reach home, and tell
their strange story. The ship Pandora scours the
seas for the mutineers. Some are found at Tahiti
but two have been murdered. Three are drowned
on the homeward trip, the rest are punished with
death on reaching England. But of Fletcher
Christian and the rest not a trace is found.
The life in Pitcairn is very terrible. The men
are in hourly dread of a visit from a man-of-war,
and many a false alarm sends them scuttling to
their hiding-places in the rocks, Fletcher Christian
is so cruel that by and by the natives of Tahiti
kill him and four other whites. Then the whites
left, struggle with the natives, till all the Tahitan
men are killed. It seems as if the tiny island runs
blood. But time goes on. Children are born. A
man who knows how to make an intoxicating drink
from native plants brings this curse upon them.
At last one man only, of the crew of the Bov/ni/y^
52 Fifty Missionary Heroes
is left. He used to be called Alexander Smith but
takes the name of John Adams. He taught him-
self to read, when a boy, from the signs and hand-
bills on the London streets. One day he goes
rummaging among the old things taken from the
Bounty^ and finds the Bible. Sick at heart over
all the wickedness on the island, he reads God's
Word. He prays. He finds and trusts God's
promises. He gives his heart to God.
It is twenty-five years since the mutiny on the
Bounty. Two men-of-war, one September evening,
find an island not laid down in their charts. Next
morning they see the homes of people on the shore
— neat and comfortable they look. See. A canoe
from the shore, with two young men, comes to rards
the ships, and hails them in the English tongue.
How amazing ! They are taken on board and given
some refreshments. Before they eat, they fold
their hands and say earnestly, " For what we are
about to receive, the Lord make us truly thankful."
By and by the story all comes out. John Adams
has been the missionary who has taught those on
the island to worship God and love His Word. It
is this which has changed everything. He dies in
1829, forty years after the mutiny.
Another missionary goes out by and by, and
the wonderful story goes on in the Transformed
Island.
XII
HENEY MAETYN
Missionary to India and Persia (1806-1812)
SUEELY it was a wonderful young missionary,
who, dying at thirty-one, after only six years
of service, left a name that has been re-
membered and loved for a hundred years. Wasn't
his life worth living ?
In the town of Truro,
Cornwall, England, in
1781, lived a labouring
man by the name of
Martyn, who had risen
to the place of chief clerk,
in a merchant's establish-
ment, by his own industry
and business ability. Into
this man's home came a baby boy who grew into a
sensitive, proud, ambitious, and impetuous youth.
He was so bright that he obtained a scholarship
in St. Stephen's College, Cambridge. His only
thoughts were of scholarship and fame, till his
father's death made him think of higher things.
When he was graduated with high honour, and
seemed to have gained his highest ambition, he
said that he found he had only grasped a shadow.
He must find something better than self to live
for. He had intended to be a lawyer, but finally
53
54 Fifty Missionary Heroes
felt called to the ministry, and then to the work
of preaching to the heathen. Reading about
William Carey's work in India turned his thoughts
in this direction, but it was the life of David
Brainerd which influenced him most. The story
of this devoted life given to work among the North
American Indians, fifty years before this, led Henry
Martyn to become a missionary.
When he was but twenty-two, he offered himself
to the Church Missionary Society to serve in India,
and was accepted. But it was three years before
he could go out. First he served as a curate in a
village parish, in order to have better preparation
for work abroad. And then he had to wait for a
license. In those days no one could go from Eng-
land to India without a license from the East India
Company. The last trial which came to this young
missionary about to set out was saying farewell to
the lady he dearly loved, as he must do, if he went
so far away. But he loved his Saviour so much
that he gave up everything, even the one he loved
best on earth, and sailed away, to see her no more.
There was no other way.
The ship in which the young missionary sailed
Bteered her course towards Africa. Then it was that
the passengers learned, to their surprise, that there
were soldiers aboard, who, at Capetown, attacked
the helpless people there. Mr. Martyn was horrified,
but as soon as he could, went ashore and ministered
to the two hundred wounded men that he found in
a wretched little hospital. At Capetown he met
the old missionary^ Dr. Yanderkemp, and asked him
Henry Martyn 55
if he had ever been sorry that he had left all to
become a messenger to the heathen. " No," said
the brave man, " and I would not exchange my
work for a kingdom." Have you ever heard of a
missionary who was sorry ? I never have. They
seem to be the gladdest people anywhere.
Arrived in Calcutta, May, 1806, the young mis-
sionary wrote of the place that " the fiends of dark*
ness seemed to sit in sullen repose in the land." It
was very discouraging ; but the brave heart trusted
God the more, and began the work of overturning
the idols of the heathen. At Calcutta he made his
home with a missionary named Kev. David Brown,
who gave him a beautiful pagoda to live in. The
English people of the city were so charmed with
the refined manners, bright mind, and lovely spirit
of Mr. Martyn that they wanted him to settle
among them as a permanent minister, but his heart
turned towards the millions in darkness. He got
an appointment to Dinapore, whither he went to
labour as almost the only one to stand up for Jesus
in all the multitudes that swarmed about him.
It was as an English chaplain that he had been
obliged to go out at first, not as a regular missionary,
but he took this way in order to get a chance to
do missionary work. He began to study Hin-
dustanee diligently, and in two and a half years
learned to speak it fluently. He began a school
and afterwards established five. He began to
translate the Bible, and to prepare tracts to give to
the people. His native version of the New Tes-
tament was highly approved, but his Persic versioUy
^6 Fifty Missionary Heroes
made for circulation among another set of people,
was much injured by the malice of the interpreter,
who put in words of his own choosing, which the
common people could not understand.
A friend of those days writes of the missionary :
" I perfectly remember the young man as he came
into our home. He was dressed in white, and
looked very pale. His expression was so luminous,
intellectual, affectionate, and beaming with love,
that no one thought of his features or form. Char-
acter outshone everything. There was also the most
perfect manners, with attention to all minute civil-
ities, and he was remarkable for ease and cheer
fulness. He was the humblest of men."
While in Diuapore Mr. Mart3m heard of the
death of his two sisters at home from consumption,
and the same disease began to show itself in him.
He was ordered to Cawnpore, where he had a long
illnesSo As soon as able to be out-of-doors, the mis-
sionary began his work again. He was so kind that
he was soon known to a crowd of beggars who
surrounded him when he went out. He arranged
to have them come to him at a regular time once a
week when he promised them each a small piece of
money. In this way he gathered a company of
about 500, who listened to his words after receiving
his gifts. They were the lowest class and most
wretched of the people. By and by he had to
leave Cawnpore for his health, but went to Persia,
there revising his Persic 'New Testament. Growing
worse, he set out for England, but died suddenly at
Tokat, several hundred miles from Constantinople.
XIII
GTHDO FEIDOLIN VEEBECK
Who Eeceived From the Japanese the Decoration of
The Rising Sun {1830-1899)
N
that
OT all heroes are decorated by those
governments whose people they seek to
serve, but here is one who did receive
appreciation in Japan. You will keep on
reading, I am very sure,
until you find out how
it was.
You will guess at
once from this good
man's name that he was
not an American, or, at
least, that his parents
were not. He was born
in Utrecht, the ^N'ether-
lands, in 1830, but in his young manhood he sailed
from Kew York, in 1859, for Japan, as a missionary
from The Reformed Church in America. He set
forth in May, and in November he reached Nagasaki^
Japan. It took longer then than it does now.
For nearly forty years this missionary was an
influence in this country, and had an active part
in the progress of Protestant missions there.
Do any of you remember the story of the con
version of a Japanese officei through finding a
57
58 Fifty Missionary Heroes
floating Testament on the water ? There was
such a man, " really and truly," and his name was
Wakasa. He was commander-in-chief of Japanese
forces at ^tsTagasaki. One day he noticed some-
thing floating on the waves, and sent some one to
bring it to him. It proved to be a copy of the
New Testament, in English. The officer was very
curious about it, and after many difficulties got
some one to read it to him. He came in contact
with Dr. Yerbeck, and in 1866 was baptized by
him, as a Christian, through the study of God's
Word.
Perhaps you know that the "Two-sworded
Class," having a right to carry two swords, is one of
very high rank in Japan. Dr. Yerbeck taught
two classes of Two-sworded young men, in Nag-
asaki, at one time.
In 1868, when the Revolution in Japan broke
out, these young men remembered their instructor,
of whom they thought highly, and as they were
now prominent in government affairs, they sought
out the missionary and asked his advice about fram-
ing their new institutions — a great honour indeed to
pay to a foreigner.
The advice given was so good and acceptable
that the adviser was called to Tokyo. There he
stayed for nine years, in close connection with the
government, helping to shape it, and supervising the
university, and the system of education which was
the first established. The first deputation of Jap-
anese that went on a tour among the nations of
Europe took Dr. Yerbeck along.
Guido Fridolin Verbeck 59
In recognition of his services in this and other
directions he was decorated by the government
as one of the third class of The Rising Sun, and
was thus entitled to appear at court. In translating,
teaching, preaching, and living, he was a power,
for forty years, in planting ChrLstianity in the Sun-
rise Kingdom.
Later, Dr. J. C. Hepburn, first medical missionary
from America to Japan (1815), had the decoration
sent him on his ninetieth birthday, at home, by
the Emperor of Japan.
XIY
ALEXANDER DUFF
Missionary to India {1830-1864)
ALEXANDEE DUFF was another bright
boy who began early to prepare for a use-
ful life. He was a Scotch laddie, born in
Perthshire, in 1806. At fifteen he entered the
University of St. An-
drew. He grew to
young manhood during
the time of a great
awakening in the inter-
est of missions all
through Scotland. Hav-
ing become an earnest
Christian, he heard the
call to preach the Good
J^ews to the heathen, and when he was twenty -three
he was sent as a missionary to India. The voyage
was anything but safe and easy. Twice he nearly
lost his life in a wreck ; first on a rocky reef when
rounding the Cape of Good Hope, and again on the
coast of Ceylon. A third time he barely escaped
with his life in a wreck near the mouth of the
Ganges River. In the first wreck the missionary
and his wife lost everything, not even saving a book
from their library, nor any of the precious plans
60
Alexander DufF 6l
and manuscripts they carried. It took them eight
months to reach Calcutta. Were they discouraged ?
Not at all.
The chief thing that young Mr. Duff intended to
do was to open a school which would give a good
education to Hindu youths. The language was to
be English, so that the missionary teachers would
not have to learn a foreign tongue. The Bible was
to be regularly taught every day. The Orientals
wanted all instruction to be given in Sanskrit, but
they could not bring it about. The missionary had
his way, and did what he came out to do. How
many students came the first day, do you think ?
Five. And where did the school open? Under a
banyan tree. There was no other place, and this
did very well. Before the first week ended there
were three hundred applications, and very soon
there was a good building provided for the two
hundred and fifty accepted pupils. They learned
English readily, and studied the Bible every day.
By and by the natives began to feel that it was
the Bible which made the English people different
from themselves. They saw the kindness of the
missionaries, and wondered over their leaving home
to try to help others far away. They asked, " What
makes them do all this for us?" and then they
answered, " It is the Bible."
The second year, three times as many students
came, and before very long the number increased
to a thousand. Wasn't that grand progress ? And
many became Christians, and faithful ones, too,
which was best of all. The story of one of the
62 Fifty Missionary Heroes
converts is very touching. A man came to one of
the missionaries and told him that he wanted leave
to die in his house. He showed in his worn face
that he was near death. He was about sixty years
old, and had been a Christian for twenty years.
But he had " lost caste " by this, and was cast out
by those of his own class and family. No one
would have anything to do with him. All these
years he had lived alone, and had been faithful to
his Master. Now he was sure that the end was
near, and longed to die in the house of a Christian
missionary. He was kindly cared for through
five weeks of suffering, and then his pain and lone-
liness were over. Before he died, the missionary
said to him one day, " Captain (for he had been in
the army), how is it with you ? " The man's thin
face kindled into a beautiful glow as he said, " Jesus
has taken all mine and given me all His." The
missionary asked, " What do you mean by ' all
mine ' ? " " All my guilt, all my sin," said the
man. " And what is ' all His ' ? " asked his friend,
"All His righteousness, all His peace," and then
he fell asleep — triumphant in Jesus.
In 1834 Dr. Duff, as he was then, went back
home. He was in such poor health that he could
not stay longer in India without a vacation. But
he spent the time at home, as far as he possibly
could, in going about and stirring up the people
with his burning words, as he told of the great
work abroad. He was asked to become the prin-
cipal and professor of theology in the Free Church
of Scotland, and urged strongly to accept. But he
Alexander Duff 63
could not and would not, begging them to allow
him to remain always a missionary to the heathen.
Ke turning to India, and then after a time return-
ing to Scotland, he had many honours bestowed
upon him.
In 1857 the earnest missionary went back to
India after having spoken to thousands upon the
mission work. This time he opened a school for
high caste girls, that is, girls of the highest class.
There were sixty-two enrolled the first year. When
examination day came at the close of the year,
many high caste gentlemen of India came to the
exercises, and said they were very much pleased
with all that they saw and heard. It used to be
said in that land that one might as well try to
teach a cow as to teach a girl anything, but the
girls showed that they could learn when they had
a chance.
At last Dr. Duff's health failed utterly and he
had to leave the field. For fourteen years he
helped the Cause in the home-land, and passed away
in peace, at the age of seventy-two.
XV
CAPTAIN ALLEN GAEDINER
Tlie Man Who Wanted ^' a Hard Joh^'> {183^-1851)
LOOK at your map for Patagonia and Terra
del Fuego, at the southernmost point of
South America. The people there used to
be among the very worst known anywhere. They
were cannibals, and the filth-
iest of creatures, besides being
the cruelest. When they talked
it sounded like a man clearing
his throat, and it was almost
impossible to understand them.
They believed that a good
spirit lived in the sun and two
bad ones in the moon, and that
good people, at death, went to
the sun, and bad ones to the moon. You can im-
agine what a hard thing it would be to try to
Christianize such people. There was a young man,
long ago, who said he wanted to be sent to the
hardest place to do the hardest missionary work
that needed to be done. He did not ask or seek
easy work, and took the hardest. It was Captain
Allen Gardiner.
This brave hero was born in England in 1794
When a boy he loved the water, and was trained in
64
Captain Allen Gardiner 65
the English Naval College, afterwards becoming a
captain. In his voyages he went to China. Seeing
the Chinese engaged in dreadful idol-worship made
him long to help them, and others like them. He
gave his heart to Christ, and, while still a voyager,
got leave of absence from his ship as often as possi-
ble, and went into the interior to find out the con-
dition of the natives of foreign lands. In this way
he became interested in the wild natives of
the mountains in and about Patagonia. He was
now a man of thirty, filled with a desire to be a
missionary. The London Society could not an-
swer his appeals. Ten years passed. His par-
ents died, and also his young wife. He had a
imall income, and decided to send himself, if the
Society could not send him to a foreign field.
He and a Polish companion went first to Africa,
and began a mission among the Zulus — preaching
through an interpreter, and teaching the children
to read and to wear clothes. After three years
Captain Gardiner visited England and returned
with a band of missionaries, but war between Zulus
and Boers broke up the mission.
The captain could not give up his hope to labour
among the heathen. He went to South America
and travelled about for two years, deciding to begin
work in IsTew Guinea, but the Dutch would not
allow it, distrusting him because he was an officer
in the Koyal JSTavy of England. Then he decided
to make Terra del Fuego his field. The savage in-
habitants would not make friends with him. He
went back to England and tried in vain to arouse
66 Fifty Missionary Heroes
interest in these benighted people. But he got a
grant of Bibles and New Testaments and went
about distributing them. Going again to England
he failed once more in arousing interest, but finally
some friends formed a committee for carrying on
the Patagonian mission, and sent out Eobert Hunt
as a catechist. Captain Gardiner wen^ with him at
his own expense. Alas ! The natives had moved.
All search for them was vain. No Indians were
to be found. After a while the chief and a few
others returned, but in such a surly mood that noth-
ing could be done but leave the station. An English
ship passing that way took them home.
Do you think the brave missionary was discour-
aged now ? Not a bit of it. He felt that those
degraded Indians needed Jesus, and he was more
anxious than ever to preach Christ to them. In
1848 he started again, travelled about among the
natives, returning to England to beg for help for
them. He was allowed to go back with a ship-car-
penter and four sailors. After great trouble they
landed, but the natives were so dishonest that it was
found best to try to have the mission afloat. Cap-
tain Gardiner again returned to get better equip-
ment.
Again he was met with indifference, but at last,
a thousand pounds being raised, of which he gave
three hundred himself, back he went. His soul was
stirred by a perfect passion to lead those savages
to Jesus Christ. Six others went with him on this
voyage. They carried six months' provisions and
arranged for supplies for six months more to be
Captain Allen Gardiner 67
sent, sailing for Picton Island. But no vessel would
stop there with the second supply, and the stores
were sent to the Falkland Islands. The governor
tried to forward them, but in vain. The little party
of missionaries was left destitute, and at the mercy
of the pitiless Fuegians, with only shell-fish, wild
celery and seaweed to eat, drinking rain water from
the hollows in the rocks. At last a ship was sent
out in search of the brave men, and it was found
that they had starved to death. The bodies were
found, and the writings they had left, including
Captain Gardiner's journal.
One of the dauntless men, Mr. Williams, wrote
that though his body was weak, his spirit Avas strong
and glad, and that he would not change situations
with any man living. He felt that he was in the
path of duty, even when death drew near. It was
all very sad, and it looked as if the mission of Cap-
tain Gardiner had failed. But no. The story of
his valiant effort was spread far and wide, and his
death did what his life could not do — it made men
say, " With God's help the mission shall be main-
tained." And it was. Others went out. Native
boys were brought back to be educated. A ship,
the Allen Gardiner^ took out missionaries. Some
were murdered, but others went. At last the work
prospered, and many fierce natives were won to
Jesus Christ.
XVI
CYEUS HAMLIN
Founder of Bohert College^ Missionary in Constantinople
for Thirty-four Years {1839-187S)
AMAE^ that founds a college is worth know
ing. Don't you tnink so? Let us get
acquainted, then, with Cyrus Hamlin, who
was the founder of Robert College in Constantinople,
and a teacher, scholar,
missionary, inventor, ad-
ministrator, and states-
man. Hannibal Ham-
lin, Yice-President of
the United States dur-
ing the administration
of President Lincoln,
was first cousin to this
missionary.
Cyrus Hamlin was born on a farm near "Water-
ford, Maine, January 5, 1811. When the baby was
only seven months old, the good father died, leav-
ing the mother to struggle hard to bring up her
children. When he was but six, the boy began his
education under a teacher in a little red school
house. As he grew older, the books read in the
home were much like those that Lincoln read-
Goldsmith's " History of Greece and Rome," " Pil-
grim's Progress," " Yicar of Wakefield," and Rollings
68
Cyrus Hamlin 69
" Ancient History." The Bible was always read,
and the Missionary Herald.
One of the first things the boy undertook to
make was an ox-yoke, which was made from yellow
birch wood, and was called " a thing of beauty,"
Afterwards he made almost every tool and article
needed on the farm, though he had no teacher.
When Cyrus was eleven, he was allowed to go to
town on Muster Day, a great holiday in those
times, when they had sham fights with Indians, and
parades, such as boys like. His mother gave him
seven cents to buy gingerbread, but said as she gave
it, " Perhaps you will stop at Mrs. Farrar's and put
a cent or two in the contribution box." The boy
tried to divide the seven cents in his mind, before
he reached MrSo Farrar's, but could not satisfy him-
self as to how many he would give, and how
many he would keep. When he reached the house
he said to himself, "I'll just dump them all in."
And so he did, and went without gingerbread.
Returning home hungry as a bear, he said that he
had had nothing to eat, and his mother gave him a
bowl of bread and milk. He said it was the best
he had ever eaten.
When he was sixteen, Cyrus began to learn the
trade of a silversmith in Portland, and in three
years developed the mechanical skill for which he
was afterwards famous. At seventeen he united
with the church, and joined a society of Christian
jroung people, though in those days there were no
Christian Endeavour organizations. One day a good
deacon who had watched the young Christian
70 Fifty Missionary Heroes
asked him if he did not think he ought to be a min-
ister. The answer was that the expense would be
too great. The deacon said that the church had
voted to give a thousand dollars for such use, and
this decided the matter. The eager student began
his preparation, first in school, then in Bowdoin
College, where the poet Henry W. Longfellow was
among his classmates.
In the winter of 1831, in Bowdoin College, two
young men, preparing to be missionaries, had a
great influence upon some of the students. Cyrus
Hamlin was one of those who volunteered for the
foreign field. When he told his mother, she said,
*' Cyrus, I have always expected it, and I have not
a word to say."
One day the professor lectured on the steam
engine in the college class, and it appeared that
but few had ever seen one. Young Hamlin said,
" I think I could make one so that any one could
understand its parts." " I wish you would try it,"
said the professor. The young man resolved to
"do it or die." He succeeded, and the work of
three months brought him $175.00 for his model.
It is now in the cabinet in the college.
Bangor Theological Seminary received this
bright student after he had been graduated from
college with highest honours. At last he was ready
for his work abroad, and was appointed to Turkey.
Miss Henrietta Jackson, who was a young lady
well adapted to be his helper, consented to go with
him as his bride.
The second day after landing in Constantinople
Cyrus Hamlin 71
the two young missionaries began to study the
language. It was a troublous time in the land, and
there were many hindrances to mission work. It
was a year before a school could be opened and
then it began with but two pupils. Before long
there were twelve.
Mr. Hamlin fitted up the school with all sorts of
appliances, which he was skilled in making. The
Orientals thought such work was done by Satan,
but flocked to see the appliances, and to watch
experiments in the laboratory, often staying to ask
about the Christian religion.
The missionary, now Dr. Hamlin, gave much help
to students through his workshop. His next enter-
prise was to establish a bakery in connection with
a mill. This not only helped the poor Armenians
wonderfully, but when the Crimean War broke out,
the bakery supplied bread for the hospital where
Florence Nightingale laboured, and also for the
English camp. Dr. Hamlin built more ovens, and
agreed to furnish from twelve to twenty thousand
pounds of bread daily. Seeing how the sick and
wounded soldiers suffered for want of clean clothes
this dauntless missionary, who believed in helping
in every possible way, invented a washing machine,
which was the greatest boon. With six machines
and thirty persons, 3,000 articles could be washed
in a day. Dr. Hamlin said that he had been
credited with sixteen professions but that of washer-
woman was the one that he was most proud of.
In 1860 began the great work of founding
Robert College in Constantinople. It was named
^2 Fifty Missionary Heroes
for Dr. Hamlin's friend, Mr. Kobert, who aided the
work.
There were more difficulties in the way than you
tould count. It was hard to get permission to buy
a site, and to build. The money had to be raised
in America in the time of the Civil War. The col-
lege opened with four students, but soon had forty.
Dr. Hamlin finally finished his busy life, in the
home-land, in 1900.
XVII
EGBERT MOFFAT
Missionary to South Africa {1817-1870)
IS it not wonderful to think of doing one thing
for over fifty-three years ? That was keeping
at it faithfully, indeed. Kobert Moffat was a
hero-missionary in South Africa for as long a
time as this, and never
once said he was tired of
it and would give it up.
This brave missionary
came into the world
December 21, 1795, in a
little town in Scotland.
His parents were poor
in this world's goods, but
rich in having seven chil-
dren, and they were sturdy, honest, good people.
When the little Kobert began to go to school he
had no text-book but the Westminster Shorter
Catechism, with the alphabet on the title-page.
He did not care very much about study, and the
master sometimes tried to help him with his rod.
When he grew older, he longed for " a life on the
ocean wave " and ran away to sea. He had some
hard times, and several narrow escapes, which made
him glad to give up a sailor's life. He then at
73
74 Fifty Missionary Heroes
tended a school which pleased him better than the
first one, and studied bookkeeping, astronomy,
geography, and mathematics. It was well that
he gave his mind to these studies then, for in six
months his school days ended. At fourteen the
boy became self-supporting, being set to learn
gardening.
Robert's mother, good, earnest Christian Scotch-
woman that she was, did a great deal for her son.
She was very much interested in missions, and it
was from her lips that he first heard about the
heathen, and the work of helping them. The
mother talked cheerfully and wisely to her chil-
dren, as they sat about the fire in the evenings, all
knitting busily. The boys as well as the girls used
to knit in those days. What do you think of that ?
Certainly it was a useful thing to do.
The gardener, to whom Robert was apprenticed,
was a hard master, and it was then, when it was so
hard to get, that the boy began to long for a better
education. He joined an evening class and began
to study Latin and geometry. He also learned to
use blacksmith's tools at this time, and how to
play on the violin. His music was a great comfort
to him long afterwards, and everything he learned
was of use to him as a missionary. At sixteen he
went to England. His mother asked him to prom-
ise to read the Bible every day. He gave his word
and kept it. In England Robert the gardener
found a good place, and his master, seeing that he
was anxious to learn, encouraged and helped him
to study. JS'ot long after beginning the life in
Robert MofFat 75
England, the young man was invited to some
special meetings and gave his heart to the Saviour.
He was so happy that he wanted to tell everybody,
and then an intense longing came into his heart
to carry the news to the heathen. But he was not
yet fitted to be a missionary and the London Mis-
sionary Society refused to send him. But one of
the ofiicers became interested in him, and advised
him to come to Manchester, and study under his
care. A Mr. Smith, who was much interested in
missions, gave the young man a place in his nursery
garden. It was a very good place, and more than
that, gave him a chance to know Miss Mary Smith,
who afterwards became his devoted and helpful
wife.
By and by Mr. Moffat was accepted by the Mis-
sionary Society and began to prepare for his life
as a missionary. "When the time came, he had to
go alone to Africa, as Miss Mary Smith's parents
felt that they could not give up their bright young
daughter, though she was willing to go as the mis-
sionary's bride to the dark land so far away. Mr.
Moffat set forth on his lonely way. Arrived in
Africa, he had all sorts of trials and dreadful ex-
periences for more than a year before he reached
the station in Namaqualand, known as Afrikaner's
Kraal, north of the Orange River. Afrikaner had
been a fierce and cruel chief, but some missionaries
had led him to Christ. He now welcomed Mr.
Moffat and said he must stay. He bade the women
bring materials for a kraal, or house of poles and
mats, plastered with mud, and shaped a little like
70 Fifty Missionary Heroes
a beehive. In half an hour the kraal was finished,
and the missionary lived in it six months, though
it was not very comfortable to have the hungry
dogs running in and out, and snakes dropping down
at any time.
One of the first things Mr. Moffat taught the
people was to wash themselves and put on decent
clothing, while he told them of Jesus who would
take away their sins. The chief gave him two
cows which saved him often from going hungry to
bed, as his salary was not quite $120.00 a year and
how could he get everything needful with that
sum?
After two years and a half, Miss Smith's parents
consented to her going to Africa, and after a long
voyage of several months she arrived, and was
married to the good missionary. The two opened
many stations, and did their work under the great-
est difficulties that you can imagine. It was very
hard to learn the language, for it was not written
and there were no books. The interpreters took
pleasure in telling them the wrong words, which
made it harder. At last Mr. Moffat was able to
write a spelling book and have it printed in Eng-
land, afterwards writing a catechism, and trans-
lating parts of the Bible. Nine years passed before
there were any great signs of success, but then
there was a wonderful awakening among the
Africans, and a new church had to be built to
hold the converts, while the sound of praise and
prayer came from many homes. After twenty-
three years of service, Mr. Moffat took his wife
Robert Moffat 77
and returned home for a visit. After telling his
story, and receiving great honours, he went back
with Mrs. MofiFat to the work they both loved.
After thirty years more, they returned to England.
The next year Mrs. Moffat died, and twelve years
later, aged eighty-seven, the husband followed.
He who once said, " I have sometimes seen in the
morning sun the smoke of a thousand villages
where no missionary has ever been," went to many
of them with the true light that still shines.
xvm
SAMUEL J. MILLS
The Missionary Who Never Beached His Field
{Died in 1818)
PEEHAPS you know that near Williams
College, Williamstown, there is, this very
day, a monument in the shape of a haystack,
as a reminder of what took place once upon a time,
under a real haystack, on this spot. Very early in
the nineteenth century, somewhere about 1809-10,
there were four young men in Williams College
who used to meet together in a grove for prayer
and conference. One day a heavy shower forced
them to find better shelter than the trees afforded,
and they took refuge under a haystack in a field
near by. They were earnestly talking on this
day about sending the Good News to the far-
away heathen, and in the shelter of that haystack
they pledged themselves to go as foreign mission-
aries as soon as the way should open. The best
known of these four students was Samuel J. Mills,
born in Massachusetts, in the town of Tolland, and
now about twenty-five or twenty-six years old.
At this time, Mr. Mills, with the other three,
came to Andover to enter the theological seminary
there. Here they met young Adoniram Judson,
who was just then looking for some way to be sent
78
Samuel J. Mills 79
to the foreign field. But there was no Society or
Board ready to send anybody to heathen lands.
There was the Massachusetts Missionary Society,
which was founded in 1799, but its work was limited
to the E^orth American Indians, and it could do
nothing for these young men who wished to go to
India, Burma, and Africa. At last, after talking
over matters, and asking advice of others, besides
making it a subject of earnest prayer, a paper was
drawn up, telling their wishes, and asking sup-
port, direction and prayers from the ministers who
were gathered at the time in what was called The
General Association.
At first there were six names signed to this
iocument, but, for fear the ministers might be
alarmed at the thought of providing for so many,
two names were taken ofiP, one of them being that
of young Mr. Judson. The assembled ministers
adopted a set of resolutions in their meeting, which
finally led to the organization of a new Society, or
Board, called The American Board of Commis-
sioners for Foreign Missions, which, in due time,
set apart the young ministers to be missionaries to
go to far-off heathen lands.
Samuel J. Mills, who was the son of a minister,
now began to look forward to a work in foreign
countries, such as his heart had long been set upon.
But after his graduation day, there seemed to be a
great deal for him to do first in the home-land.
He had been one of those whose petition had been,
in part, the means of organizing a new Society to
send out missionaries. Now he helped to start the
8o Fifty Missionary Heroes
Bible Society, which was as important as any
Mission Board. Unless there were Bibles to take,
and in the language of the heathen, how could
messengers take them to those who had never heard
the Word ? So the Bible Society was formed.
The work of Home Missions used to be called
Domestic Missions, and every one knew that this
must be carried on too, and Mr. Mills did much to
help in the work at home. Then he helped to
organize another Foreign Mission Board called The
United Foreign Missionary Society. JSText came
the African School, under the care of the Synod of
New York and New Jersey, and Mr. Mills had his
share in planning this work for the coloured people.
The American Colonization Society, which planned
to send out colonies to other lands, now chose Mr.
Mills to go as their messenger to Africa, and to
choose a good place to send a colony, or company
of negroes from America, to live in a land from
which the first black people came. Mr. Mills had
been a helper in getting this Society started, and
now, at last, he was to go to the foreign field him-
self, and, in this way, make a beginning in mission-
ary work.
Joyfully he set sail in a ship, but before he could
carry out his mission, he was taken ill with fever.
He was not very strong and the dread disease ran
its course. The young missionary-to-be died on
shipboard, in strange waters, on the 16th of June,
1818. He was only thirty-five years old, and had
not been able to carry out the great wish of his
life ; but, after all, he did much for the heathen
Samuel J. Mills 8l
world in the organization of the societies that
carried on the work he loved, and longed to share.
Besides, this young missionary-to-be was so good —
so earnest, loving, faithful, and enthusiastic, that
others caught his interest in missions. Even to-day,
when over ninety years have passed since his life's
service ended on that ship in far-off seas, people
are better for knowing the life, and hearing the
story, of Samuel J. Mills, remembered still for the
work he did.
XIX
ADONIEAM JUDSON
Missionary to Burma {18 IS- 1850)
ADAEK-EYED baby boy lay in his old^
fashioned cradle more than one hundred
and twenty-four years ago. In the little
town of Maiden, Massachusetts, August 9, 1788,
this child was born, and
named Adoniram, after
his father, who was Kev.
Adoniram Judson, a Con-
gregational minister in
that far-away time. The
father, and the mother,
too, thought this baby a
wonderful child, and de-
termined that he should
do a great deal of good in the world. They thought
that the best way to get him ready for a great work
was to begin early to teach him as much as he
could possibly learn. Long pieces were given him
to commit to memory when he was hardly more
than a baby, and he learned to read when he was
three. Think of it !
When he was four, he liked best of all to
gather all the children in the neighbourhood about
him and play church. He always preached the
Sf
Adoniram Judson 83
sermon himself, and his favourite hymn was, " Go,
preach My Gospel, saith the Lord." This was a
good way to have a happy time, and he wasn't a
bit too young to think about telling others the Good
News, for he was old enough to know about Jesus
and His love.
The little Adoniram, like boys who live now,
liked to find out about things himself. When he
was seven, he thought he would see if the sun
moved. For a long time he lay flat on his back in
the morning sunlight, looking up to the sky through
a hole in his hat. He was away from home so long
that he was missed, and his sister discovered him,
with his swollen eyes nearly blinded by the light.
He told her that he had " found out about the sun's
moving," but did not explain how he knew.
At ten this boy studied Latin and Greek, and at
sixteen he went to Brown University, from which
he was graduated, as valedictorian of his class, when
he was nineteen. He was a great student, loving
study, and ambitious to do and be something very
grand and great indeed. Two years after this, he
became a Christian, and then came a great longing
to be a minister, and he studied diligently with this
end in view. There was one question which this
splendid young man asked about everything, and
this was, " Is it pleasing to God ? " He put this
question in several places in his room so that he
would be sure to see and remember it.
Mr. Judson taught school for a while, wrote some
school-books, and travelled about to see the world.
After some years he read a little book called " Tho
84 Fifty Missionary Heroes
Star in the East." It was a missionary book, and
turned the young man's thoughts to missions. At
last he seemed to hear a voice saying, " Go ye/'
and with all his heart he said, " I will go." From
that moment he never once faltered in his determi-
nation to be a missionary. His thoughts turned
towards Burma, and he longed to go there. About
this time Mr. Judson met the four young men who
had held a prayer-meeting in the rain, when they
sheltered themselves in a haystack, and there prom-
ised God to serve Him as missionaries if He would
send them out. These five were of one heart, and
were much together encouraging one another.
There was no money to send out missionaries, and
Mr. Judson was sent to London to see if the Society
there would promise some support. The ship was
captured by a privateer, and the young man made
prisoner, but he found an American who got him
out of the filthy cell. This man came in, wearing
a large cloak, and was allowed to go into the cell
to see if he knew any of the prisoners. When he
came to Mr. Judson he threw his cape over him,
hiding him from the jailer, and got him out safely,
giving him a piece of money, and sending him on
his way. The London Society was not ready to
take up the support of American missionaries, but
not long after this, the American Board, in Boston,
sent him to Burma, with his lovely young bride,
whose name, as a girl, was Ann Hasseltine. It took
a year and a half to reach the field in Kangoon,
Burma, and get finally settled, in a poor, forlorn
house, ready to study the language. By this time,
Adoniram Judson 85
Mr. Judson was taken under the care of the Baptist
Board, just organized, as he felt that he belonged
there. The Burmans were sad heathen, and the
fierce governors of the people were called " Eaters."
The work was very hard, but the missionary said
that the prospects were " bright as the promises of
God." When he was thirty-one and had been in
Burma six years, he baptized the first convert to
Christianity. The preparation of a dictionary, and
the translation of the New Testament, now occupied
much time.
After this came great trouble. It was war time.
Missionaries were unwelcome. Dr. Judson was put
in a dreadful prison. After great suffering there,
his wife was allowed to take him to a lion's cage,
left empty by the lion's death. She put the trans-
lation of the New Testament in a case, and it was
used for a pillow. After he left the prison, a serv
ant of Dr. Judson's found and preserved the precious
book. Set free at lasi, he went on with his work.
Death came to his home again and again, and trials
bitter to bear. For thirty-seven years he toiled on,
several times returning to America, but hastening
back to his field. By that time there were sixty-
three churches in Burma, under the care of one
hundred and sixty-three missionaries and helpers,
and over seven thousand converts had been bap-
tized. Worn out with long labour, the hero-mis-
sionary, stricken with fever, was sent home, only to
die on shipboard, and his body was buried at sea.
XX
THE THEEE MRS. JUDSOI^S
Helpmeets to the Missionary in Burma
Miss Ann Hasseltine
THEEE was a pleasant stir in the little
village of Bradford, Mass., one day, in
the year 1810. It was the occasion of
a meeting of the Missionary Society, or General
Association of Massa-
chusetts, and the dele-
gates were entertained
with great hospitality-
A number of these
worthies, older and
younger, were gathered
at the table of a Mr.
Hasseltine for dinner,
and among them young
Mr. Adoniram Judson, who had just signified his
great desire to go as a missionary. Pretty Ann
Hasseltine waited on the table. A gifted and
sprightly girl she was, as well as beautiful and
good. She looked with curious interest upon the
young man whose bold missionary projects had
made a stir in the meeting, but to her mind, he waa
wholly absorbed in his plate. How could she guess
that he was that very moment engaged in com«
86
The Three Mrs. Judsons 87
posing a graceful bit of verse in her praise ? Yet
so it was, and he must have found courage to tell
her this, and other things, by and by, for she after-
wards went to Burma as the wife of the bold mis-
sionary. At that time it was India that was the
chosen field.
Ann Hasseltine was born in Bradford, Mass., in
1789. She was a restless, merry, vivacious girl,
richly gifted. At sixteen she entered the service
of her Saviour with all her heart, and her bright-
ness and beauty became His. She taught school
for some time after leaving Bradford Academy,
which gave her added fitness for the life of a mis-
sionary, which she entered, in 1812, on her mar-
riage to Mr. Judson, afterwards Dr. Judson. She
was one of the very first lady -missionaries. The
ii/rst from America was Mrs. Kaske, going with
her husband in 1746 to South America.
The two missionaries had a serious time reaching
their field. The East India Company decided that
missionaries were not desirable, and ordered them
back to America, but finally allowed them to go to
the Isle of France. They then planned to go to
Madras, but the East India Company had juris-
diction there, and finally, the only way that
opened was to Rangoon, Burma, a place always
held in great dread. But they embarked for Ran-
goon in a crazy old vessel, and were tossed about
«o violently that Mrs. Judson was dangerously ilL
She recovered after landing. Everything was for-
lorn and gloomy enough, but they took courage
and set about their work.
88 Fifty Missionary Heroes
Mrs. Judson learned the language very quickly,
and used it to advantage. Four years after setting
out upon the voyage to Burma, little Roger Will-
iams, who had for eight months been the joy of the
missionary home, was taken from them.
Twice Mrs. Judson had to return to America,
once for two whole years, to recover her broken
health. She was a great help in the mission field,
having a school for girls, and busying herself in
many ways.
In a time of war with England, Americans were
not always distinguished from Englishmen, and
Dr. Judson, then at Ava, was thrown into prison.
It was a wretched building of boards, with no
ventilation but through the cracks, and had never
been cleaned since it was built It was to this
dreadful place that Mrs. Judson brought the tiny
baby Maria for her father's first sight of her.
Through all the imprisonment, the loving and
courageous wife visited her husband in the midst
of all sorts of dangers, as she was the only white
woman in Ava. She brought him clean linen as
she could, and food, day by day.
One day, having a little more time than usual,
she thought she would surprise Dr. Judson by
making him a mince pie, as he used to be fond of
the dainty at home. She contrived to make it out
of buffalo meat and plantains, sending it to him by
the one faithful servant. But alas ! The poor
prisoner was moved to tears at the sight of it and
at the thought of his wife's devotion, and could
not eat the pie. A fellow-prisoner ate it instead
The Three Mrs. Judsons 89
After a few months, a lion who had been pre-
sented to the king was placed in a cage near, and
made night and day hideous with his roarings till
he died. His cage was so much better than the
prison that Mrs. Judson by dint of much begging
at last got permission to move her husband into it.
The months wore on, and Dr. Judson was secretly
removed to another place to a death-prison. When
Mrs. Judson heard it, she set forth, with little
Maria in her arms, and partly by boat, partly in a
jolting cart, reached the wretched prison. " Why
did you come ? " her husband cried. " I hoped you
would not, for you cannot live here."
The keepers, cruel as they were, yielded at last,
and gave her a little room near, which was half
full of grain, and there she spent the next six
months.
By and by Dr. Judson was sent as an inter
preter on a trip, and at last, after many delayb
and dangers, was released. Coming back to Ava,
he hurried to find his wife. He was startled to
see a fat half-dressed Burman woman holding a
baby too dirty to be recognized as his own child.
On the bed lay his wife, worn and pale, her glossy
hair gone, her fine head covered with a cotton cap.
But she recovered, and the family left the scene of
so much misery.
The Judsons began mission work in a new sta-
tion, and Mrs. Judson was planning a giiis' school,
and many activities, when Dr, Judson was sum-
moned to Ava on very important business. She
urged him to go. While he was absent, she was
go Fifty Missionary Heroes
stricken with fever. With no missionary friend at
hand, only the weeping Burmans bewailing "the
White Mamma," she passed away. Her husband
received the tidings, and hastened home to find the
grave under a hopia (hope) tree, surrounded by a
rude railing. Little Maria lingered six months,
then she was laid beside her mother.
Mrs. Saeah Hall Boardma]^
Keenforcements were not lacking through all the
years of Dr. Judson's service. There came out to
Calcutta to join the Burman Mission, as soon as
might be. Rev. George Dana Boardman, and his
wife, who was pronounced by some English friends
in Calcutta to be "the most finished and fault-
less specimen of an American woman that they
had ever known." In 1827 these friends reached
Burma. Mr. Boardman died after a few years of
very fruitful ministry, and for three years his wife
stayed on, making long journeys through drench-
ing rains, "through wuld mountain passes, over
swollen streams, deceitful marshes, craggy rocks,
tangled shrubs and jungles." In 1834: she was
married to Dr. Judson. She had a very fine
knowledge of the Burmese tongue, and could speak
and write fluently. She had great power in con-
versation, and translated also very accurately. She
held meetings with the women for prayer and Bible
study. After his eight years of loneliness, Dr. Jud-
son found the home ties sweet, and the help he
received in his work very great. Mrs. Judson trans-
lated part of " Pilgrim's Progress," several tracts,
The Three Mrs. Judsons 9 1
twenty hymns for the Burmese hymn-book, and
lour volumes of a Scripture Catechism, besides
writing cards with short hymns. She learned the
language of the Peguans, another tribe, so that she
might help them by translating, which she did by
superintending the translation of the New Testa-
ment and tracts into their strange tongue. Little
children came to bless the home, and joy and love
reigned there.
But after her twenty years upon the field, Mrs.
Judson's health failed. Her husband started home
to America with her, but, when reaching the Isle
of France, she became so much better that she
urged Dr. Judson to return to the work that needed
him so much. He expected to do this, but there
came a sudden change for the worse. As the ves-
sel neared St. Helena, Mrs. Judson died, and the
worn body was laid away in mission ground upon
the island, where a stone afterwards marked the
spot.
Miss Emily Chubbuck
There is a volume of attractive little sketches
which some people used to read before any of you
younger readers were born, which bears the name
of "Fannie Forester" as the writer. Her real
name was Emily Chubbuck. But when she wrote
*' Alderbrook," and another book of lighter sketches
called " Trippings," she used a nom de plume.
This young lady was born in Eaton, N. Y., but
taught school in Utica in that state, besides writing
sketches, poems, and Sundav-school books, so that
^2 Fifty Missionary Heroes
she was a busy person, as you can see. And a
lovely young person she was, too, by all accounts.
When Dr. Judson was at home the last time in
America, after his long absence upon the mission
field, he travelled about a good deal, and on one of
his journeys he read the book called '^ Trippings,"
which some one had given him to beguile the way.
He thought it a very bright book, and asked his
friend about the writer. He said that one who
could write as well as that could write better, and
he would like to see some of her work on greater
themes. His friend told him that he would have
the pleasure of meeting " Fannie Forester " before
long, as she was a guest in his home at present.
When Dr. Judson first saw the attractive and
gifted writer, she was undergoing the interesting
operation of vaccination. After this was over, he
led her to a sofa, saying that he wished to talk
with her.
Miss Chubbuck said that she would be delighted
to have him do so, and then he spoke about using
her talents upon the most worthy subjects. She
told him that she had been obliged to write because
she was poor and must make a living, and the light
and trifling subjects seemed to be most popular.
Dr. Judson was full of sympathy for her. He had
it in his mind to find some one to write the story
of Mrs. Sarah Boardman Judson's life, and offered
the opportunity to Miss Chubbuck.
After some time the intercourse thus brought
about resulted in marriage, and the cultured and
Wented, dauntless spirit, schooled in poverty, went
Tb<^ Three Mrs. Judsons 93
back with the missionary, to prove a great help to
him in finishing his wonderful work. She soon
acquired a good knowledge of the language and
prepared Scripture questions for use in the schools.
When her little Emily Frances came, the poet-
mother wrote the sweet verses so many have read,
called " My Bird."
After Dr. Judson's death and burial at sea, on
his way home to regain his health, Mrs. Judson
came home, much broken herself, to care for he*
parents and her rJviWren. She died at Hamilton
K Y., in 1854.
XXI
DAVID LIYIl^GSTONE
Over Thirty Tears Missionary in Africa {1840-187 f)
PEOPLE who know but one or two missionary
names know this one. Anybody might
well be ashamed not to know the name, and
something about the work, of David Livingstone.
He was a doctor, an ex-
plorer and discoverer, a
philanthropist who did
much for humanity, and,
most of all, he was a
missionary hero, who
gave his life for Africa.
What a splendid story is
his.
The little David was
born of sturdy, earnest Christian parents in the
town of Blantyre, Scotland. His father, Neil Liv-
ingstone, was a travelling tea merchant in a small
way, and his mother was a thrifty housewife. Be-
fore he was ten, the boy received a prize for reciting
the whole of the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm,
"with only five hitches," we are told. He began
early to be an explorer, and went all over his native
place. He loved to collect flowers and shells. He
climbed one day to the highest point in the ruins of
94
David Livingstone 95
Bothwell Castle ever reached by any boy, and
carved his name there.
When only ten, he went to work in the cotton
mills, and bought a study-book out of his first
week's wages. A schoolmaster was provided for
evening lessons by the mill-owners. When David
could have the master's help, he took it, and when
he couldn't, he worked on alone. In this way he
mastered his Latin. He was not brighter than
other boys, but more determined to learn than
many. He used to put a book on the spinning
jenny, and catch sentences now and then, as he
passed the place in his work. In this way he
learned to put his mind on his book no matter what
clatter went on around him. When nineteen, he
was promoted in the factory. At twenty the
young man became an earnest Christian.
It was about this time that Dr. Carey, sometimes
called " The Consecrated Cobbler," stirred up the
churches on the subject of missions. A good
<?.eacon formed a missionary society in Blantyre,
and there were missionary talks, and the giving out
of missionary books. David Livingstone became
so deeply interested that, in the first place, he
decided to give to missions all he could earn and
save. The reading of the " Life of Henry Martyn '*
stirred his blood, and then came the appeals of a
missionary from China, which thrilled the youth
still more. At last he said, "It is my desire to
show my attachment to the Cause of Him who died
for me by devoting my life to His service." From
this time he never wavered in his plan to become a
96 Fifty Missionary Heroes
missionary. He got a good preparation, through
seven years of study, and became not only a
regular minister, but a doctor as well.
The young man wanted to go to China, but the
Opium War there prevented. Then Robert Moffat
came home and Livingstone heard him plead for
Africa and say that he had " sometimes seen in the
morning sun the smoke of a thousand villages
where no missionary had ever been," and this set
tied the question for him. He would go to Africa.
His parents consented gladly, but you know that
the parting was hard. Look at this picture. It is
the evening of November 16, 1840. Livingstone
goes home to say good-bye before he leaves his
native land for the Dark Continent. He suggests
that they sit up all night, and we can see the three
talking earnestly together. The father is a man
with a missionary's heart in him. At five in the
morning they have breakfast, and kneel for family
prayers, after David has read Psalms cxxi. and
cxxxv. Now the father and son start to walk to
Glasgow. Before entering the city, the two say,
" Good-bye," and part, never to meet again.
Arrived in Africa, Mr. Livingstone finds some
easy work offered at a station, but pushes on seven
hundred miles towards Dr. Moffat's station where
heathenism is like darkest night. Here the people
think him a wizard, able to raise the dead. An old
chief says, " I wish you would give me medicine to
change my heart. It is proud and angry always.'^
Livingstone shows the way to Jesus. He is the first
missionary who ever came into this region. How
David Livingstone 97
busy he is as doctor, minister, and reformer. He
studies the plants, birds, and beasts. He finds
forty-three different kinds of fruit, and thirty-two
eatable roots, in one district. He sends specimens
to a London college.
This man keeps on exploring, telling of Jesus
wherever he goes. When he writes home, his let-
ters are covered with maps of the country. He is
learning more about Africa than any one has
known before. He studies the African fever, and
the deadly tsetse fly, that brings disease. During
this time he has the adventure with the lion, often
mentioned, the fierce creature rushing on him, bit-
ing him and breaking his arm and crushing his
shoulder. It cripples him for life, but he says little
about it. In putting up a new mission building, he
breaks the bone in the same place, but hardly
mentions it. Years later, a company of royal
surgeons identify the body brought home as that
if Livingstone by the scar and the fracture.
For four years this missionary hero toils alone in
the beginning of his life in Africa. Then he is
happily married to Miss Mary Moffat, daughter of
Dr. Moffat who told of the " smoke from the thou-
sand villages, where Jesus was unknown." Now
they work earnestly together, in the station called
Mabotsa, where the chief Sechele is the first con-
vert. Before he fully learns the " Jesus Way," the
chief says to the missionary, " You cannot make
these people believe by talking. I can make them
do nothing but by thrashing them. If you like, 3
will call them all together, with my head man, and
98 Fifty Missionary Heroes
with our whips of rhinoceros hide we will soon
make them all believe." But the missionary teaches
him the true way. He goes on exploring new
fields, teaching, healing, and helping all the way^
He discovers Lake N'gami. He goes into the in-
terior forcing his way through flooded lands,
through sharp reeds, with hands raw and bleeding,
and with face cut and bloody. He sets himself
against the slave-trade, " The open sore of Africa,"
as he calls it, battling heroically against it and
enlisting others in the struggle. His wife and
four children must go home, but the man stays,
to work on alone. Finally he disappears for
three j^ears. He is found in a wonderful way by
Henry Stanley, whom he leads to Christ, but he
will not return with him to England. He toils on
and toils on, weary and worn. One morning in
1874, his African servants find him on his knees in
his hut beside his bed. The candle is burning
still, but the brave, unselfish life has gone out.
They bury their master's heart under a tree, and
carry his body on their shoulders a thousand miles
to the coast — a nine months' march, then send it
home to England. There it sleeps to-day in West-
minster Abbey, but the hero and his work live
unforgotten and ever-to-be-reraembered while the
world endures.
XXII
DAVID ZEISBEEGER
TJie Apostle to the Belawares {17 Ii.5-1805)
W
HO is not interested in the Indians?
Everybody ought to be, and surely few
are not. We like to hear, especially,
about the red men of long ao^o.
^v.. This little story is
about the man who
preached the first Prot-
estant sermon in the
state of Ohio, the man
who has been called
"The Apostle to the
Delawares," because he
was the first to go to
that tribe of Indians.
David Zeisberger was
born in Moravia, as long ago as 1721. It is a good
thing to know about good men who lived " once
upon a time," long years ago. This boy was of a
good Protestant family, whose ancestors belonged
to the ancient church called The Bohemian Breth-
ren. When David was only ?^nq^ his parents found
that they would be safer in Saxony, so they joined
a colony of Moravian emigrants there.
Ten years later, when their son was fifteen, they
^ent to Georgia, joining the American colony there.
99
fOO Fifty Missionary Heroes
But David was left at Herrnhut, Saxony, to be ed
ucated. He joined his parents two years after.
When he was twenty-four he began his work among
the Indians, but it was in troubled times, when
anybody might be arrested, if there was the slight-
est cause to be found. Through some misunder-
standing, young Mr. Zeisberger was arrested as a
spy in the employ of the French, and was impris-
oned in New York for seven weeks.
Governor Clinton released the young missionary,
who at once took up his work among the Dela-
wares, and also the Iroquois. Afterwards, the
Indians composing the Six Nations made him a
" sachem," and a " keeper of their archives " or rec-
ords of some sort, whatever they were.
The French and Indian War interrupted the mis-
sionary labours, but the missionary acted as inter-
preter, on an important occasion, when Pennsyl-
vania made a treaty with Chief Teedyuseung and
his allies. Later Mr. Zeisberger established a mis-
sion among the Dela wares on the Allegheny River,
and still later went to Ohio.
During the War of the Eevolution, the Dela-
wares were accused of many things, and the con-
verts were driven from their towns to the British
lines. At another time and place, the missionaries
were tried as spies and the Christian Indians scat-
tered. Kinety-six came back to gather their corn,
but were cruelly put to death. All this was dis-
couraging. The missionary gathered a little rem-
nant and built an Indian town in Michigan. He
was a great traveller, you perceive. Mr. Zeisberger
David Zeisberger loi
came back to Ohio and founded another mission,
whose members were obliged to emigrate to Canada
after four years. But finally the missionary was
allowed to labour for the remaining ten years of
his life on the site of a former mission, which he
now called Goshen.
This missionary served the Indians for a longer
time than any other, even for sixty years altogether.
He established thirteen Christian towns, one of them
the first Christian settlement in Ohio. He died at
eighty-seven, with Christian Indians singing hymns
around his bed, " an honour to the Moravian Church
and to humanity."
XXIII
EOBEET MOEEISON
The Founder of Protestant Missions in China {1807-1884)
WOULD you like to make the acquaintance
of a little Scottish lad of long ago?
There is good reason for it, you may be
sure, for he turned out to be one of our heroes,
brave, persevering, and
still unforgotten. This
son of Scotch parents
was not born in Scot-
land, but in England,
and his people were
humble folk, of the
name of Morrison, who
were glad to welcome
their son Robert at his
birth, January 11, 1782. That his parents were
neither rich nor great made no difference in their
son's wishing to do things, nor in his really doing
them, but he had to work harder and longer to
accomplish them, which did him no harm.
The boy had to begin daily labour early, and was
apprenticed to a master who taught him how to
make lasts. Robert had no notion, even then, of
making this the work of his life ; but we believe
that he did not shirk his task, though the story goes
Robert Morrison 103
that he studied while at work. Many have done
that, and without slighting their duties. When he
was fifteen, Kobert's better life began, for then he
became a Christian, and united with the Scotch
Church. At nineteen he began the study of Latin,
Hebrew, and theology, a minister in ]S"ewcastle
being his teacher. After fourteen months' prepara-
tion, he entered what was called a theological
academy, to prepare for the ministry. He did not
stop with this. His " long, long thoughts " went
further, and he decided to become a missionary.
He carried out his purpose and his wish was
granted, for in 1804, when he was but twenty-two,
he was appointed the first missionary of the London
Missionary Society to China. It was this that gave
him the claim to be called The Founder of Prot-
estant Missions in China. Don't you think it an
honourable title ? But although Kobert Morrison
did a number of " first things," it was not for sake
of standing first himself. There were some things
that came first, before the young missionary could
begin his mission. He went to the missionary col-
lege at Gosport, and took two years' training for
his work, studying Chinese, among other things.
Three years after his appointment the young man
sailed for China. But he was not able to go directly
there from England. Some difficulties connected
with the opium traffic prevented, and he had to go
to New York first. It was a long and tiresome
journey by this roundabout way. He left London
the last day of January, 1 807, and it was Septem*
ber before he arrived in Canton.
104 Fifty Missionary Heroes
Here Mr. Morrison assumed the Chinese dress,
diet, and habits. He thought it would be eco-
nomical, and also acceptable to the Chinese, but
before long it proved to be neither. It was not
good for his health to live on Chinese food al-
together, and the Chinese dress was not suitable.
It was not pleasing to the Chinese. Of course
they knew that he was a foreigner, and it must
have seemed like " pretending " for him to dress
as they did. Yery sensibly, Mr. Morrison returned
to his own ways.
About this time the Chinese Government issued
an edict forbidding the preaching of the Jesus Ee-
ligion, and the printing of Christian books. The
new missionary therefore wisely set himself about
the translation of the Bible, in connection with the
continued study of Chinese. His health had suf-
fered from hard study and privations, and besides,
it was not safe for him to stay in the empire, and
he went to Macao for a year. After this his oppor-
tunity came to go back, for he was appointed
translator for the East India Company's factory,
and this made it safe for him to live in China per-
manently, with a chance to reach some of the
people, and go on with Bible translation.
Mr. Morrison kept this office for twenty-five
years, and found time for his Bible- work, also his
great Chinese dictionary and other books. His
revision of the Book of Acts was the first Scrip-
ture portion printed in Chinese by any Protestant
missionary. Early in 1814 the whole JS'ew Testa-
ment was ready. Think what a great work it was
Robert Morrison 105
How long do you suppose it was before the first
Chinese convert was won ? Seven years. He had
to have " long patience," you see, but he did not
give up. With all his missionary work, Dr. Morri-
son, as he was made about this time, went on with
translating the Bible, a grammar, and other works.
Finally the entire Bible was printed, the Old
Testament alone making twenty-one volumes.
The hardest work of all was the dictionary. It
cost fifteen thousand pounds to print it, but Dr.
Morrison's part was never reckoned in money. In-
stead of an alphabet, such as we have, the Chinese
make a character stand for a word, and there are
over 40,000 characters. A man can get along
pretty comfortably with only 10,000, but really
ought to know 25,000. There are seven different
tones or ways of sounding, and one tone may mean
a verb and another a noun. The different tones
are sometimes shown by marks. But it is a hard
language.
Dr. Morrison took no vacation for seventeen
years. Then he went home for two years. He
had an audience with George lY, and presented
him with a Chinese Bible. He was received with
distinction everywhere. Then he went back to the
field and died, August 1, ISS^j after twenty-five
years of heroic service.
XXIY
MES. HANS EGEDE
Who Shared Her Husband's Labours for Fifteen Year&
in Greenland {1721-1186)
DID you ever sing " From Greenland's icy
mountains " ? Of course you did, for you
are not such heathen as never to have sung
Bishop Heber's Missionary Hymn. But have you
thought very much about those " icy mountains " ?
It is hard to decide whether to speak of the
husband or the wife in telling of the missionaries
to Greenland in 1721. Think how long ago it was.
It was a book that began it. How often it has
been a book. It was so with Dr. Judson, and
Henry Martyn, and many others.
This book was in the Kbrary of a young minister,
Hans Egede, in Yaage, on the coast of Norway.
It told how a Christian church had been founded
in the tenth century in Greenland. Fourteen bishops
had ruled over it, but at last the heathen fell upon
the Christians, drove them away, and the church
was forgotten for centuries. The young minister's
heart was stirred with a desire to go and find the
lost church. His people called him crazy and even
his wife at first refused to think of it. But at last
many providences made the wife, as well as the
husband, willing and even anxious to go to Green-
land, feeling that it was God's will, and their work
io6
Mrs. Hans Egede 107
Early in 1721 they went, but were almost
wrecked in trying to land, and did not land until
July. It was far from a " green land " that they
found. 'Not a tree or bush or blade of grass was
to be seen, and no remains of the church could be
found. The people were greasy savages, smeared
with seal oil, dressed in skins, living in queer
dwellings more like ant-hills than houses. The
wizards tried to kill the missionaries by magic, but
failed, of course. Yet it seemed as if hunger and
exposure would soon do it, for the ship with sup-
plies was lost. The minister thought they must go
back home, but Mrs. Egede said, " Wait a little."
She kept up his courage for three weeks and then
a ship arrived with stores and colonists, and hope
revived.
Mrs. Egede was so anxious that the work should
go on that she was willing to have her husband
and two boys spend the winter in Greenland huts,
that they might learn the language of the natives,
and make friends with them. The huts were like
great beehives, without any ventilation, heated by
seal oil lamps, unimaginably dirty, and shared with
dogs and pigs, after two or three families had
crowded in. What do you think of the heroism
all round ?
After two years the relics of the old church were
found, but no one among the living could tell the
story of it.
What the missionaries endured can hardly be
believed. Once a big, hungry polar bear came into
their house, and was gotten out, as by miracle.
lo8 Fifty Missionary Heroes
One of the younger sons used to draw pictures to
help illustrate the father's sermons. Every means
possible was used to help the natives. They were
very unfriendly for a long time, but in days of dis,
tress came and fed the missionaries.
In all times of trial, the brave wife kept up her
own courage and helped to make the others
courageous. At last helpers came, and the work
prospered wonderfully.
Mrs. Egede did not live to see the full dawn of
hght, dying after fifteen years of faithful service in
Greenland,
XXY
DE. JOHN SCUDDEE
The First Medical Missionary From America
{1819-1855)
ONCE upon a time, a lady who was ill sent
for her physician whose name was Dr.
John Scudder. The place was IS^ew York
While in the anteroom for a few minutes, he
took up and read a tract
called "The Conversion
of the World." It made
such a deep impression
upon the young doctor's
mind that he could not
forget it. After think-
ing it over and thinking
it over, he finally decided
to give his life to helping
in the great Cause, and in 1819 he sailed for Cey-
lon under the American Board of Foreign Missions.
Dr. Scudder was the first medical missionary to
go to the foreign field from America. Surely his
name should be remembered for this, and also for
the fact that in 1820 he was the only medical mis-
sionary in the world.
After some years Dr. Scudder went from Ceylon
to Madras, India. Those who know his nama
109
no Fifty Missionary Heroes
usually associate him especially with India, because
that was his last field, and a good part of his
thirty-six years of missionary labour was spent
there. He made one long stay in the home-land
when he had to return, but while in America he
did a great deal for the Cause he loved. He loved
to talk to children, and while he was at home^
spoke to a hundred thousand at different times
and places. A lady now living said to me that
one of the sweetest memories of her childhood was
seeing and hearing dear Dr. Scudder, and having
him speak to her when she was a little girl. The
good missionary's health failing, he went to Cape
of Good Hope, Africa, for medical advice, and was
returning to his field when his life ended with a
sudden stroke of apoplexy, at Wynburg, South
Africa, in 1855.
Dr. Scudder gave more than his own one life to
missions. He gave seven sons and two daughters
to the work in India, and another record says fif-
teen grandchildren besides. Isn't it simply splendid
to think of such a family as that ? At one time
a whole mission station was carried on by five sons
of the Scudder family, their wives and one sister.
Dr. Henry Martyn Scudder was the first son of a
missionary to be sent forth as a preacher to the
heathen. He was a very skillful physician.
Dr. John Scudder, Jr., was another missionary-
physician, and three of his children became mis-
sionaries. Eev. William Scudder was another son
of this family. He gave twenty-two years of serv-
ice to India, was then a congregational pastor for
Dr. John Scudder 111
eleven years in America. When he was sixty
years old he went back to India for nine years of
labour, and died in 1895. And one tract was the
beginning of all this I
XXVI
JAMES CALVEET
Tfie Printer 'Missionary to Fiji {1838-1855)
THEEE seems to be no profession or trade
that a missionary may not find useful in
both home and foreign fields. Now this
one, James Calvert, who was born in England a
hundred years ago, was
apprenticed to a printer,
bookbinder, and sta-
tioner, for seven years.
He had some education
first, and seems to have
made good use of all his
early opportunities.
The young man's heart
turned to the foreign
mission work, and in good time he was appointed
to labour in Fiji, and went bravely to the field to
which the Wesleyan Missionary Society sent him.
It took three months' travel to reach the island,
in 1838. One of the first tasks that came to the
heroic missionary was to gather up and bury the
bones of eighty victims of a cannibal feast. You
see what he had to deal with in his new field, and
what the young bride had to face. But they had
no thought of turning back — not they.
lie
James Calvert II3
Six months after landing in Fiji, Mr. Calvert had
charge of thirteen towns that had no roads at all
connecting them, and of twenty-four surrounding
islands, some of them a hundred miles away. To
reach his island-field, the missionary had only a
canoe that was hardly seaworthy, but he used it
somehow, and was kept from drowning, and from
being killed and eaten by the savages. He and
his wife mastered the queer language very soon,
and showed very great courage and tact in dealing
with the natives.
The name of the king was Thakombau. The
conversion of his daughter had a great influence
upon the savages. There was a custom in the
islands of strangling the women of the household
when a king died. Mr. Calvert offered, Fiji fash-
ion, to have one of his own fingers cut off if
Thakombau would promise not to strangle any
women when the old king died. Just this offer
showed the cannibals what sort of stuff the man
was made of. He did a great deal to abolish the
dreadful custom.
When, by and by, the king of the Cannibal Islands
became a Christian, he ordered what had been the
old " death drums " be used thereafter in calling
people together to worship the true God, in whom
he now believed. He openly confessed his faith
and put away his many wives. Among his last
acts was the ceding of Fiji to the Queen of Great
Britain.
Mr. Calvert's knowledge of printing and book-
binding was very useful indeed, as was the print-
114 Fifty Missionary Heroes
ing-press set up not long after his arrival. The
press was carried from one island to another, and
thousands and thousands of printed pages were
scattered abroad. In 1847 the New Testament,
well bound and complete, was ready for the natives.
After seventeen years of labour in Fiji, the mis-
sionary spent some time in England, then went on
a mission to Africa. In 1855 he attended the
Jubilee of Christianity in Fiji. He found over
1,300 churches, ten white missionaries, sixty-five
native ones, 1,000 head teachers, 30,000 church-
members, and 104,585 church attendants. He died
in 1892.
XXYII
FIDELIA FISKE
The First Unmarried Woman to Go to FersiA. us a
Missionary (1843-186^)
W
HAT is she like ? " " What is he like?'*
These are natural questions to ask
about people, are they not ? When we
think about Fidelia Fiske of Persia, and ask what
she was like, we seem to
hear what more than one
friend said of her, that
"she was like Jesus."
She made others think
of what the Saviour was
like when on earth, lov-
ing to pray to His Father,
and " going about doing
good."
The love for missions and the wish to be a mis-
sionary came very early to the girl Fidelia, who
heard the work talked about a great deal in the
family from the time she could remember. A rela-
tive who went to the foreign field was often spoken
of, and " a real live missionary " was not a myth to
the child.
The seminary for girls, at Mount Holyoke,
founded by Miss Mary Lyon, was a good training
"5
Il6 FifEy Missionary Heroes
school for missions. So much was said upon the
subject, and the interest of Mary Lyon was so
great, that missions seemed to be in the very air.
In the first fifteen years there was but one class of
graduates that did not have one or more members
on the foreign field, while there were hundreds
who became Home Mission teachers, or wives of
missionaries. It was to this school that Fidelia
Fiske went as a pupil, and there her interest grew
apace. It was fed, for one thing, by the many
letters that came from those who were busy in the
work.
One day a missionary from Persia came to the
seminary. She wanted a teacher for a girls' school,
and begged earnestly for one from Mount Holyoke.
Said Fidelia, " If counted worthy, I shall be willing
to go." There were all manner of difficulties in
the way, but finally she sailed for Persia with
Dr. and Mrs. Perkins, and reached Urumia in June,
after a journey of about three months, in the year
1843. It was perhaps not a longer trip in those
days, but travellers did not go so fast, and it was
very tiresome, we may well suppose.
The government of Persia was intolerant, that
is, would not bear anything with which it did not
agree, and the poor people were very degraded.
The parents did not wish their daughters to go to
school. Indeed, they thought such a thing very
improper indeed.
A few day scholars had been coaxed in before
Miss Fiske came, but she was anxious to have a
boarding-school. She wrote home to a friend that
Fidelia Fiske II7
the first foreign word she learned was daughter,
and the next was give. Then she went to the
people saying, " Give me your daughters."
It was very hard to get scholars because it was
thought such a disgrace for a woman to know how
to read, and because it was thought the better way
to marry the girls off very early. To be sure, the
cruel husbands beat them, and the quarrelsome,
coarse women knew nothing better and took it all
as a matter of course, but it was all the more pitiful
for that.
At last, when the first day set for beginning
school was almost over, a Nestorian bishop came
bringing two girls saying, " These be your daugh-
ters and no man shall take them from you." More
came after that — ignorant, dirty, greasy creatures
that must be taught to keep clean first of all ; but
they had souls, and were patiently taught. The
people were poor, there were few books, and things
were very hard. But the Bible was taught three
hours a day, and a great deal of Scripture learned
by heart. Miss Fiske and her teachers prayed and
toiled on, and by and by a wonderful improvement
was seen.
The busy missionary visited the women in the
dark, dirty homes, and brought them to her room
to pray with and teach them. By and by a Nes-
torian woman believed the truth and said to others,
"The Lord has poured peace into my soul."
One day there was a strange visitor before Miss
Fiske's door. It was a Koordish chief, one of the
worst of men. He came with guD and dag'2:er, god
Il8 Fifty Missionary Heroes
acted as if he would defy everybody. But he
brought his daughter and left her in the school.
His heart was reached at last, and he was wonder-
fully changed. He kept saying, " My great sins —
my great Saviour," and he led the rest of his
family to the Lord Jesus. One time this man was
praying in a meeting. When he rose from his
knees he said, " O God, forgive me. I forgot to
pray for Miss Fiske's school." He knelt again, and
prayed earnestly for it.
In the year 1846 a most wonderful blessing came
to the school. The Holy Spirit touched the girls'
hearts. They looked for places to pray, and used
the teachers' rooms for prayer-closets, and even the
wood-cellar. It was not the only time that many
conversions occurred. When the school was nine-
teen years old twelve such seasons as this had
come, and more than two-thirds of the scholars
had learned to know Jesus Christ. Miss Fiske
was full of joy, but she was much worn out. One
time, after several services, she was so tired that
it seemed as if she could not sit up through the
preaching service. A woman came and sat down
behind her, so that she could lean on her, and said,
" If you love me, lean hard."
Worn out. Miss Fiske returned home, and failing
to recover strength she died in 1864, in Shelburne,
Mass., where she was born. She was in her forty-
eighth year. A grieving Nestorian girl wrote to
America; "Is there another Miss Fiske in your
country ? "
XXYIII
DE. MAECUS WHITMAN
Who Saved Oregon for His Country {1836-18J^7)
WHAT is an explorer ? One who travels
over a country to discover what is in
it ? You will say so, if you go to the
dictionary man, who is a good one to consult in
very many cases. Think
up some explorers that
you have heard of. Per-
haps you will begin with
Columbus, who was cer-
tainly a famous one.
But if the discovery of
this land in the first
place had not been
followed afterwards,
through many years, by other explorations and ex-
plorers, we might none of us be living just where
we are now.
Among the explorers of the early part of the
nineteenth century were two men named Lewis
and Clark. Their names are always coupled to-
gether, for they went together, and they made
their way far West, in 1 802-4. Of course they found
Indians in great numbers. The Indians had be-
gun by this time to know more of the white men
IIQ
120 Fifty Missionary Heroes
because of the many explorers who passed their
way. From some of these the red men got some
knowledge of God and the Bible. Lewis and Clark
told them that in God and the Bible, lay the secret
of the white man's power. This was one of the
most important things that these two explorers did.
It made the red men long to know more of God
and His Book. Every Sunday the Hudson Bay
Company put up a flag to show what day it was,
and the Indians called it " Flag Day " when they
saw it float. There was a trapper who spent a
great deal of time reading the mysterious Book and
talking to the Unseen Being. The Indians wanted
to know more about this new religion and were
told that by and by missionaries would come to
teach them. So they waited. Around their coun-
cil fires they talked and wondered about the coming
messengers. And they waited. But it was in vain,
and years and years went by.
In 1832 the red men decided to send five Nez
Perces far East to find the white man's Book, and
beg for teachers. So they went, but only four
reached St. Louis. They found General Clark
there, and their old friend, superintendent now of
Indian affairs, treated them kindly. But when
they told him for what they had taken the long
journey, he did not make the errand public. Why
he did not, we cannot imagine. He entertained
them, as others seem to have done also, and took
them to see the sights. They were taken to the
cathedral and shown the pictures of the saints, but
ihe story of the Saviour was not told, nor was the
Dr. Marcus Whitman 121
white man's Book given them. Two of the four
died, and the remaining two sadly prepared to re-
tmn to their camp-fires. As they were leaving the
office of General Clark, one of them spoke such
touching words of farewell that a young man who
heard them took them down, and here they are :
" I came to you over a trail of many moons from
the setting sun. You were the friend of my fa-
thers who have all gone the long way. I came
with one eye partly opened for more light for my
people who sit in darkness. I go back with both
eyes closed. How can I go back to my blind peo-
ple ? . . . The two fathers who came with us
— we leave asleep beside your great water and wig-
wam. They were tired in many moons and their
moccasins wore out. My people sent me to get the
white man's Book of Heaven. . . . You showed
me images of good spirits, and pictures of the good
land beyond, but the Book was not among them to
tell us the way. I am going back the long sad
trail to my people. . . . You make my feet
heavy with gifts, but the Book is not among them.
When I tell my poor people . . . that I did
not bring the Book, no word will be spoken.
. . . One by one they will rise up and go out
in silence. My people will die in darkness, and
they vfill go on the long path to the hunting grounds.
No white man will go with them, and no white
man's Book will show the way. I have no more
words."
The young man who copied the words sent them
East, and when asked about it, General Clark said
122 Fifty Missionary Heroes
that they were true. The story roused the Chris-
tian people. It was not strange, was it ? Several
people promised to go, five at least, but only two
went to answer this call. In a log cabin, in Kew
York State, where now is the town called Eush-
ville, over thirty years before, was born the boy
who was now to be a Pathfinder to the great West.
The country was wild and new. The father was a
tanner and currier, or leather-dresser. It was lone-
some in the house, and the mother used to go and
sit binding shoes in her husband's little shop.
One evening when she came back, having left the
baby Marcus in his quaint little cradle, she was
frightened to see that a log had tumbled out of the
big open fireplace, and had set fire to the lower end
of the wooden cradle. The baby was almost
choked with the smoke, but his life was saved for
a great mission.
At seventeen the boy became a Christian. His
heart was set on becoming a minister, but his broth
ers, fearing he would have to be a " charity stu-
dent," discouraged him. The way opened for the
study of medicine, and he took his diploma, really
practicing eight years or more. At one time he
was associated with his brother in running a saw-
mill— not knowing that this experience, too, would
be a help to him by and by. Hindered in his wish
to study for the ministry, his heart turned towards
missionary work. He offered to go anywhere the
American Board would send him. He fairly panted
for such service, and his passion for adventure and
exploration only increased his zeal.
Dr. Marcus Whitman 123
The opportunity had now come, and Dr. Whit
man started from St. Louis, April 8, 1835. But thi»
was just a little preparatory trip to see what coul(3
be done. He returned after a journey of 3,000
miles, and spent a busy winter in preparation. He
secured the company of Rev. H. H. Spalding and
wife, and Mr. William Gray, and the best compan-
ionship of all, in the bride who consented with all
her heart to go with him.
Try to imagine that journey. Think what sup-
plies the company must take, and the untrodden,
lonesome way before them. Part of the way the
ladies rode in one of the two wagons, but much of
the trip was made on horseback. At night came
the encampment beside a fire, where buffalo meat,
their chief subsistence, was cooked. Dr. Whitman
proved to be an excellent cook. His wife said he
cooked every piece of meat a different way. The
waterproof blanket spread on the ground, with
another blanket above, served for a bed for each
traveller. In crossing rivers, the women rode the
tallest horses to keep from getting wet. After foui
months and three thousand miles of travel, stopping
at Fort Walla Walla, crowds of Indians met them,
and some asked, " Have you brought the Book of
God ? " At last the journey ends in Oregon, the
rude shelter is put up for housekeeping, the mis-
sionary work is begun. Little Alice Clarissa is
born, but after a few years is drowned in the river.
After a while seven orphan children are adopted,
and at one time there are eleven of these in the
family. At one time the only meat to be had i*'
124 Fifty Missionary Heroes
horse-flesh, which they leajn to eat, because there
is nothing else. But not once do one of the mis-
sionaries regret coming.
Now comes Dr. Whitman's great, patriotic, daring
service. He learns that it is the intention to secure
Oregon to Great Britain. His famous ride in the
dead of winter, 1843, on horseback across the con-
tinent, follows. After incredible hardships, he
reaches "Washington, with ears, nose, fingers and
feet frozen. But he sees Daniel Webster, Secretary
of State, and President Tyler, and secures the prom-
ise not to cede Oregon to England. He promises
to take a wagon train of emigrants across the des-
ert, and takes it, a thousand strong, proving that it
is not impossible, as has been thought. Oregon is
saved to the United States.
Now follow years of mission work, of labours
abundant and of every kind. But difficulties be-
gin to thicken. Trouble with the Indians breaks
out. There are reasons and incidents too numerous
to tell. But the sad end is the death of Dr. Whit-
man and his wife, with others, who died by red
men's hands, in 1847.
Eemember this hero-patriot and pathfinder of
that great country " where rolls the Oregon."
XXIX
ELIZA AGNEW
Called ^ * The Mother of a Thousand Daughters ' ' in
Ceylon {1850-1883)
WOULD you like to hear what the study
of geography did for a little girl, who
was born as long ago as the year 1807 ?
It was in New York City that this girl studied her
geography lessons, and
learned about the great
world. Perhaps she was
the only one in the class
that thought about the
great number of heathen
people in the countries
far away that were so
interesting in many
ways, but Eliza Agnew
thought about them. She thought about them so
much and so earnestly, that at last she made up her
mind to go as a missionary as soon as she was old
enough. She was eight when she made this resolve.
The study of geography, as far as the book was
concerned, was finished long before Eliza was old
enough to carry out her purpose, but she never for-
got it or gave it up. By and by the way opened,
and Miss Agnew sailed away to the Island of Cey.
Ion, where, as you know, there are pearl fisheries
I2S
125 Fifty Missionary Heroes
But this missionary was a seeker after pearls of a
different sort, and she found them, too. The pearls
were the souls of girls in that tropical island, who
were led to Jesus Christ by this missionary.
For all of forty-one years Miss Agnew was the
principal of a girls' boarding-school in Oodooville,
on the island, and, altogether, she taught a thousand
girls. In some cases she had the children, and in
others the grandchildren, of her first pupils. She
was so gentle, and loving, and good, that they all
called her " Mother." This meant that they felt
themselves to be her daughters, and this is the
reason that the good missionary was called at last
" The Mother of a Thousand Daughters."
She was very, very happy in her work of '' find-
ing pearls," and it was said that no girl who took
the full course in the school went out without be-
coming a Christian. During the forty-one years,
six hundred girls came out on the Lord's side, and
were received into the church as members. Many
of these girls became teachers in village schools,
and in other places. Many became the wives of
native teachers, preachers, catechists, doctors, law-
yers, merchants and farmers, who brought up their
children " in the fear of the Lord, faithfully." Some
were even taken as wives by the chief men of the
district, and had great opportunities to do good.
In northern Ceylon forty Bible readers gave their
time to this work. In forty-three years Miss Agnew
never went home at all. She died in 1883, aged
seventy-six. Her watchword was : " I'll tell the
Master."
XXX
JAMES HA:NrNraGTO]!^
" The Lion-hearted Bishop " of Africa (^iyS2'188S\
THE boy who was afterwards " The Lion-
hearted Bishop," was known among his
mates as '' Mad Jim." This was because
he was so very fond of fun and adventure, and
was never afraid of any
risk that promised to
bring what he set his
heart upon. He was a
great lover of nature
and would climb dar-
ingly to get a good
view, or scramble reck-
lessly to get a fine speci-
men. This merry boy
was born in England in 1847. When he was
fifteen he left school, because he was not fond of
study, and was put in his father's counting room at
Brighton. He had the spirit of dauntless perse-
verance in anything that interested him, and would
do anything rather than be foiled in what he set
out to accomplish. "When quite a young man, he
was at one time commander of a steam yacht, and
at another, captain of a battery. In these positions
he showed that he had a gift in managing men, and
127
128 Fifty Missionary Heroes
of making the best of difficult circumstances. But
he did not like business any better than he liked
study. From boyhood there was one sheet-^^nchor
that held this merry and irrepressible boy, and that
was his devoted love for his mother. That speaks
well for him, does it not ?
Outwardly, this boy and youth never neglected
religious duties, but he was not at peace. He felt
that he was living apart from God. When he was
twenty-one, he made the important decision of his
life, and began to prepare for the ministry of the
Church of England. At Oxford he gained great
influence over his fellow students. You can see
that he was a born leader.
In 1874 Mr. Hannington took a small parish in
Devonshire. In his case, as in that of Dr. Scud-
der, what seemed a small thing led to very great
ones, and changed the course of the life. This
gentleman, a year after he began to serve his
small parish, had a talk with two ladies about mis-
sions. It led him to study the whole subject care-
fully— something he had not done before. Three
years later his whole soul was moved by the story
of the cruel death of two missionaries in Africa.
He thought to himself, " I believe that I have some
characteristics and some experience that would fit
me to go as a missionary to those wilds." But his
wife could not go with him. What should be done ?
The two talked it over. The wife bravely gave
her consent to an absence of five years, and the
husband as courageously decided to go to Africa.
He was sent out as leader of a party of six to
James Hannington 129
reinforce the Central African Mission at Bubaga.
An appeal in the London Times brought in sub-
scriptions that allowed the purchase of a boat
for lake travel. In 1882 the party sailed for
Zanzibar.
But on arriving, Mr. Hannington was taken ill.
His strength was wasted by African fever and
other disorders, and he had to return home next
year. He recovered his health, happily, and went
back to the Dark Continent, this time as the Bishop
of Equatorial Africa. Freretown was the place
where he decided to make his home, and the inde-
fatigable missionary began to make a visitation of
all the mission stations within 250 miles of the
ieacoast.
There was one important station on a mountain,
2,500 feet above the plain, which was very hard to
reach. The Lion-hearted Bishop had to travel over
dreadful swamps, and over 200 miles of desert full
of dangers, to reach the place. But, nothing
daunted, he took the journey and made the visit.
The missionary had a variety of experiences, and
one that you will think very odd. He wished a
Christmas pudding and determined to make it
himself, since there was no one else to do it.
There was nothing to make it of but sour raisins
and spoiled flour, but he made the pudding. 1
could not find out who ate it. Perhaps the natives
did not " mind."
And now the missionary was strongly possessed
with the idea of opening a shorter route to
Uganda, through a higher and healthier reg^ion
130 Fifty Missionary Heroes
than that which cost him his health when travel-
ling it before. With 200 porters he started from
Mombassa. After many adventures the party
reached Victoria Nyanza, and Bishop Hannington,
with a portion of his men, pushed on towards
Uganda. Nothing was heard of them for some
time, when, November 8, 1885, four men, out of
the fifty who went with the Bishop, returned
with the heart-breaking news of his death, and
that of their fellows.
It seems that the natives had become angry over
the coming of so many foreigners to their country.
They decided to put a stop to it, and the cry was
"KUl the missionaries." It was believed that
they were the forerunners of the invaders who
were to be driven out and kept out. Especially in
Uganda did this feeling run high. It was just at
the most critical time that Bishop Hannington's
arrival was announced, and it was decided that he
must die. The chief was unwilling at first, and
proposed sending him back. But there was the
booty, and the temptation to take it proved too
much. The brave Bishop was enticed away from
his men, kept in a filthy hut for eight days, then
killed with his own rifle. His men were also put
to death. He died fearlessly, telling the soldiers to
tell the chief he " died for the Baganda, and pur-
chased a road to Uganda with his life." The
Baganda were the men of the place.
XXXI
JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA
Founder of *' The One Endeavour Company''^ of Japan
{J.87Jf-1890)
HOW do you suppose it would feel to be
born in Japan ? You cannot imagine
anything so strange. But perhaps you
can imagine a little of a Japanese boy's feelings
after hearing what he
thought about, as a little
fellow, in that far-away
island kingdom.
When this boy, whom
we know as Joseph
Hardy Neesima, was
little, he used to think
a great deal about relig-
ion, but it was not the
true religion, for he did not know anything about it.
His parents taught him from babyhood to pray to
the idol-gods made by hands, and to worship the
spirits of his ancestors — his grandfathers and grand-
mothers ever so far bade. He often went with them
to the graveyards to pray to these spirits. Some-
times the small boy would rise very early, and go to
a temple three and a half miles away, and pray to
the idols, coming back in time for breakfast. Of
course it did him no good, but he did the bert ht
LSI
132 Fifty Missionary Heroes
knew, and kept oc bravely, without minding how
hard it was. Yet some boys and girls in this
country have been known to think that it was too
hard to get up early enough on Sabbath morning to
be in good time for Sabbath school at half -past nine.
Neesima was ten years old when Commodore
Perry, of the United States, came sailing into the
Bay of Yedo, with a message to the emperor from
our President ; and the closed doors of Japan, that
had long been shut against foreigners, were first
pushed open — to open wider by and by. JN^eesima
was much stirred up over the coming of the com-
modore. He wished above everything to become
a brave soldier and fight for his country. The
Japanese seem to be born with love of country in
their hearts — most of them. The ten-year-old boy
went often to the temple of the god of war, and
asked him to make him a good soldier, ready to
fight. But one day he read the saying of a Chinese
writer, who showed that one could become a braver
man by studying books, which would help him to
conquer thousands, than by practicing with a sword
which could only kill one man at a time. Neesima
decided that he would stop sword-practice and
study books. So he did, and with all his might.
Sometimes he did not go to bed till after cock-
crowing in the morning — a foolish thing, but it
shows how much in earnest he was ! He began to
study the Dutch language, and sometimes ran away
from the office where he was, to take his lesson
from the Dutch master, after which he was beatCD
more than once, by order of the prince.
Joseph Hardy Neesima 133
Time went on and Neesima was fifteen. About
this date, he borrowed some Chinese books to read.
He opened one of them and read the first sentence.
It was " In the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth." The boy had often asked his
parents who made him, and who made all things.
They could not satisfy him with their answers.
This sentence seemed an answer. He said to him-
self " God made all things. God made me ; I must
be thankful to Him, and obey Him. I must pray
to Him." As he said afterwards, from this time
" his mind was fulfilled to read English Bible " and
"burned to find some missionary or teacher to
make him understand." But he waited and watched
six years, in darkness, not finding any one to tell
him about the Christian's God, although praying
all the time to this unknown Being. Do you not
think that he did the best he could ?
When he was twenty-one, Keesima asked leave
to go to Hakodate, but was refused, and flogged
besides, for the mere asking. But at last he goh
away safely, telling his mother he would be gone a
year. It was ten years before he came back.
While in Hakodate, he made up his mind to go to
America to find the Christian's God. If a Japanese
was found trying to leave his country he was put to
death, in those days ; but a friend rowed Neesima
out to a ship at midnight and he got on board.
There the captain hid him, so that the officers who
came next morning to look for him did not dis
cover him. Arrived in Shanghai, the young man
took passage for Boston. The ship was owned by
134 Fifty Missionary Heroes
a merchant prince named Honourable Alpheus
Hardy. God guided the youth to him, to find out
about God. Mr. Hardy took him into his own home
and for ten years gave him the best education to
be had anywhere.
After some years, Neesima took his stand for
Christ by uniting with the Church. After he was
graduated from Amherst College, he entered An-
dover Theological Seminary. Two years before
graduation, he was sent for by the Japanese
Embassy that came to Washington. He did not
fall on his face before them, as a Japanese would,
but greeted them as an American and a Christian
should. They asked him to go with them to the
capitals of Europe, and a year of wonderful travel
followed. But IS'eesima steadily refused to journey
on Sunday. He always stopped off and followed
on Monday.
After being graduated from the theological sem-
inary, Xeesima was made a member of the Japan
Mission of the American Board, and Mr. Hardy
undertook his support. His great desire now was
to found a Christian college in Japan. The first
speech he ever made before the Board put him all
in a tremble, so that he could not do an3^thing but
pray by way of preparation. But when the time
came, he bad such a feeling for the poor people of
his country that he said of himself, " I shed much
tears instead of speaking for them, and before I
closed my poor speech (less than fifteen minutes
long) about $5,000 were subscribed on the spot."
When Neesima went back to Japan in 1874 he
Joseph Hardy Neesima 135
found great changes everywhere : a new calendar,
the Sabbath made a holiday, newspapers being
printed, an army and navy created, a mint estab-
lished, lighthouses, railways, telegraphs, and other
new things in operation in the country. The
young graduate was offered a high position by the
government, but kept steadfastly to his purpose,
and founded the Christian college which was
called The Doshisha, meaning "One Endeavour
Company." Was not that a good, active name ?
It was founded in Kyoto, with eight students in
the beginning. Of the first 178 who were grad-
uated in seventeen years, all but about ten were
Christians. In twenty-five years, 4,611 students
entered, and of the 936 graduates, 147 engaged in
teaching, and ninety-five preached the Gospel.
For the first six years the work was hard, but
Neesima never wavered. Prosperity came at last,
and large gifts for the institution. Finally the
founder's health gave way. The doctor said he
might live several years if he would rest for two
years, but the brave man decided to do what he
could while life lasted, and kept on, in weakness
and pain, labouring for his beloved college. He
died, January 23, 1890, with the words " Peace,
joy, heaven " on his lips. Three thousand people
followed his body to its resting-place. " The work^
man dies but the work goes on."
XXXII
MELINDA EANKIN
The First Protestant Missionary to Mexico (1812-1888)
HAVE you ever heard the date " 1812 " men-
tioned as an important one in history ?
There was war in our country then, and
when you study history, you find some generals
mentioned who became
famous. But in that
year a baby was born
among the hills of New
England, who helped to
bring peace to many,
even in the midst of
wars and troubles. It
was Melinda Eankin,
who found her life-work
in the sunny land of the Aztecs in old Mexico, the
land of adobe huts and degraded people.
She said of herself, in later years of life, that
when she gave her heart to the Lord Jesus she was
filled with a desire to tell others about Him where
His name was not known. She could not settle
down in comfort and quietness in her New Eng-
land home. But it was not till she was twenty-
eight that her first chance came. Then there came
a call for missionary teachers to go to the Missis-
sippi Yalley. Miss Rankin responded, and went
first to Kentucky and then on to Mississippi.
136
Melinda Rankin 137
"When the war between our country and Mexico
was over, the soldiers coming home told much of
the Mexican people, how ignorant and priest-ridden
they were. Hearing these things, Miss Eankin was
much stirred up. She wrote articles for the papers,
and tried to rouse an interest among churches and
missionary societies. She did not succeed very
well. 1^0 one seemed ready to go to the needy
field. At last she exclaimed, " God helping me, I
will go myself."
But Mexico was in a lawless state. It was posi-
tively dangerous for Protestants to go there, for
they were forbidden by the government to bring
Christianity in any form whatever. As Miss Eankin
could not get into Mexico, she decided to get as
near to it as she could. She went to Texas, and
settled down at Brownsville, on the Kio Grande
Kiver, just opposite Matamoras, Mexico.
!N'ot a hotel was to be founds and it was hard to
find shelter of any sort. Miss Eankin never once
thought of giving up. The boys would say that
she was " a plucky sort." Finally she found two
rooms which she was allowed to rent. She took
one for a bedroom and the other for a schoolroom.
But she had no furnishings whatever. She was
taken care of and her wants supplied, though not
luxuriously. She wrote, "A Mexican woman
brought me a cot, an American sent me a pillow,
and a German woman said she would cook my
meals ; and so I went to my humble cot with feel-
ings of profound gratitude."
There were many Mexicans in the city of Browns-
138 Fifty Missionary Heroes
ville, and when a school was opened, the day after
Miss Eankin found rooms, the Mexican girls came
to her in numbers that really surprised her. It was
very encouraging.
One day a Mexican mother came to her, bringing
" her saint " as she called it.
" I have prayed to this all my life," she said,
" and it has never done me any good. May I
change it for a Bible ? "
Miss Eankin was so pleased that she gave her
two Bibles, because the woman said, "I have a
friend over in Matamoras that wants a Book too."
This was the first Bible that the missionary got
across the border, but it was not the last. This
little beginning made her think deeply about going
on. If only she could get God's Word across the
river into the country, it would be the best possible
thing. There was a law against it, but Miss Eankin
thought that no power on earth had a right to
keep out the Bible. She decided to ;jive herself to
the work of getting it across the river.
"You'd better send bullets and gunpowder to
Mexico instead of Bibles," said a man on this side,
who had little faith. But the missionary did not
think so, and did not take his advice. Somehow
she found means to send over hundreds of Bibles^
and hundreds of thousands of pages of tracts, which
the American Bible Society, and Tract Society,
furnished to the intrepid distributor. For you may
know that it took dauntless courage to do it.
Mexicans came over to the missionary's door, ask-
ing for God's Book. Orders for books, with money
Melinda Rankin 139
in payment, came from Monterey, and other towns.
A Protestant portrait painter helped on the work
by carrying over with him great quantities.
Not being able to get a Christian colporteur
speaking Spanish, she herself went out as agent for
the American and Foreign Christian Union, with
great success. Her school was left with her sister.
But troubles came. The sister died. Miss Rankin
was stricken with yellow fever, and was near death.
Mexican women nursed her lovingly, and she recov-
ered. But the Civil War in our land came on, and
the missionary was driven out of Texas. She went
across the river, and her work on Mexican soil began.
In Monterey, with 40,000 people, she founded the
First Protestant Mission, under difficulties and dan-
gers uncounted. She was driven from house to
house, but came back home and collected money
for buildings for the Mission. Converts multiplied,
and went themselves from house to house, and from
ranch to ranch, teaching others. The work spread.
Some Bible readers wrote, " We can hardly get time
to eat or sleep, so anxious are the people for God's
Word."
In 1871, through disturbances and battles, she
was kept safe, but next year returned home, where,
after telling her story often, she passed away, in
1888, aged seventy-six. It was she who said, " The
word discouragement is not in the dictionary of the
kingdom of heaven." A church of one hundred
and seventy Mexican members was handed over to
the Presbyterian Board of Missions when she left
Mexico.
XXXIIl
ALEXANDER MACKAY
" The Engineer- Missionary ^^ to Africa {1876-1890)
WE like to go back to beginnings, and
see how things started. Most of all, it
is interesting to know how people be-
gan, as children. You will be astonished to hear
some things about the childhood of the man called
" The Engineer-Missionary," and will be interested
as well. He was a minister's boy, born in Scotland,
in Aberdeenshire, in 1849, and when he was three
years old he read the New Testament ! "When he
was only seven, he read Milton's great poem, " Para'
dise Lost," and the historian Gibbon's book about
the Eoman Empire, also Robertson's "- History of the
Discovery of America." It is not so surprising, is
it, that the Scotch boy should find this last book
fascinating ? But think of reading the others, when,
in our Sunday-schools, he would only be in the
primary department ! Very early indeed, his min-
ister-father taught him geography, astronomy and
geometry, but in a very attractive way, and often
out-of-doors, which, you will think, was not so bad.
Sometimes the father would stop to trace out the
path of the heavenly bodies in the sky by lines in
the sand, or the course of a newly -discovered rive>
in far-off Africa, using his cane to trace it.
140
Alexander Mackay 141
Well, this bright boy grew up, as other boys do,
and as he grew older he listened with a great deal
of interest to the talks of wise men who visited his
father at the manse, and to their letters when they
were received. These talks and letters were about
wonderful things in nature, and one of the men who
knew a great deal about these wonders was Hugh
Miller. You may hear about him after you get
farther on in your studies, if you do not know his
name now.
When the time came to choose a profession, young
Alexander Mackay decided upon engineering. You
may be sure, too, that he became a good engineer.
He did thoroughly what he undertook. For soma
time he had an important position on the continent,
in Berlin. But in 1875 he heard a call to Africa
It was found that the natives of that country, es
pecially near Lake Victoria Nyanza, needed to be
taught, not only Christianity, but various industrieSj
so that they could work with their hands. Africans
were not accustomed to doing very much work, es^
pecially the men — the women worked with their
hands very busily. A call was sent to the Chris-
tians at home to send out a man to teach the na
tives of Mombassa how to work with their hands
and how to do business. Mr. Mackay offered him
self, but another Avas sent first. Soon after, he was
offered a position with a large salary, but would not
take it. He said that he wished to be ready when
his chance came to go to Africa.
The next year, 1876, he was sent out, the young-
est man in the company of pioneers, but on the
142 Fifty Missionary Heroes
inarch, after leaving Zanzibar, he was taken very
ill and was sent back to the coast, where he recov-
ered. He was told not to return before the rainy
season was over, because the roads were so bad.
No roads can well be worse than African roads,
that are often mere tracks that zigzag around the
trees and stumps, for no native would think of tak-
ing anything out of the way. He goes round in-
stead. But Mr. Mackay built 230 miles of road,
and in November he reached Uganda. Here he
was on the track of Mr. Henry M. Stanley, the
man who found Livingstone, you remember. Mr.
Stanley was the first man from abroad to visit
Uganda, and he sent back word to England that
Mtesa, the king, wanted missionaries sent there.
Mr. Mackay said that wherever Mr. Stanley had
been, he found it easier to go, because the natives
had been so kindly treated by the first visitor.
The Engineer-Missionary had studied the language
before coming and was able to print parts of the
Bible, cutting the type himself. He read and ex-
plained the Scriptures to King Mtesa, who showed
much interest in the truth.
But you must know that to the natives the new-
comer's greatest achievement, in the earlier time,
was building a wagon, painted red and blue, and
drawn by oxen. They thought this was perfectly
wonderful.
After six years the king died and his son, who
took his place, was very weak and vacillating, so
that no one could depend upon him. He threatened
to send Mr. Mackay out of his country, but the
Alexander Mackay 143
missionary held his ground. His engineering work
was so valuable that the king often took advantage
of it, in spite of his threats.
In two years the persecutions broke out afresh,
and finally, in 1887, the Arabs persuaded Mwanga
to expel Mr. Mackay. He locked the Mission
premises and went to the southern end of the lake.
Here he stayed for three years. He was busy trans-
lating and printing the word of God, teaching the
Christian refugees from Uganda, and also the na-
tives of the place, meanwhile working at house-
building, brick-making, and in the building of a
steam launch. In February, 1890, an attack of
malarial fever caused the death of the brave, gentle
missionary, called by Mr. Stanley " the greatest
since Livingstone."
XXXIY
TITUS COAN
{Of Hawaii)
Pastor of the Largest Church i7i the World in the
Middle of the Wmeteenth Century {1835-1882)
WHEN you read the heading of this chap-
ter, you will certainly want to keep on
till you know how many members there
were in the " largest church " in the middle of the
nineteenth century. But
first of all, you must
know something about
the man who was the
pastor of it, and so we
will begin at the begin-
ning.
In 1801 in Killing-
worth, Connecticut, was
born the boy who after-
wards had the distinction just mentioned. But you
may be sure that it was not " distinction " that he
cared for, by the time it came to him. As this
Connecticut boy grew up and became a minister,
he heard the call in his heart to go far off to those
who did not know what he knew of the true God
and the Saviour Jesus Christ. His first mission was
to one of the darkest parts of the earth— Patagonia.
You know where that is, at the tip end of the Con-
144
Titus Coan 145
tinent of South America. It was truly a dreadful
place, where the ferocious savages wandered about,
as wild and wicked as you can imagine, and worse.
For several months Mr. Coan and his associate
Mr. Arms, lived among these fierce natives of the
eastern coast. But the natives would not believe
that they came to do them good, and so great was
the danger of death at their cruel hands that the
two missionaries were obliged to leave, and they
finally escaped in 1834. They returned to New
London, Connecticut.
Mr. Coan's desire and determination to be a mis-
sionary was not lessened by this experience. It was
rather strengthened by the sight of what men were
without Christianity. There came another call, and
the way opened in another direction — that of the
Hawaiian Islands. A year and a month after the
return from Patagonia, on June 6, 1835, Mr. and
Mrs. Coan landed in Honolulu, and the next month
went to Hilo, the station where they were to work.
Some missionaries had been there before, for a
little time. Some schools has been established, and
about a fourth of the people could read. There
was a church of thirty-six members. All this
meant a good beginning, but not a big beginning,
and there remained much to be done. In three
months, Mr. Coan began to speak the native lan-
guage. He must have been a bright man, and a
very diligent one as well, to get on so fast with
the strange tongue of those islanders. He spent as
much time as he possibly could among them, and
tried to see and become acquainted with as man\'
146 Fifty Missionary Heroes
as possible. Before the year was over, this mission
ary had been all round the island, by canoe and on
foot. It was a trip of three hundred miles. In
this parish was the largest active volcano-crater in
the world.
This missionary was one of the busiest you ever
heard of. In eight days he preached forty-three
times. In a trip of thirty days he examined
twenty schools, and over twelve hundred scholars,
talked personally with multitudes of people, and
ministered to many sick.
So he went on, preaching, teaching, praying, his
wife helping in many ways. In the latter part of
the year 1835, Mr. Coan made a tour of his field,
and felt that a great blessing was coming. Multi-
tudes gathered to hear his message. One morning
he had to preach three times before breakfast,
which he took at ten o'clock.
It was in 1837 that the great revival really came.
It continued in wonderful power for two years. It
has been said that this missionary held a camp-
meeting lasting two years. Almost the whole
population of Hilo and Puna crowded to hear the
Word of God. Of course there was no church
building large enough to hold them all. The sick
and the disabled were brought to the meetings on
the backs of kind neighbours and friends, or were
borne upon litters (like that man in the Bible who
was " borne of four "). At any time of day or
night, if a bell were rung, thousands of people
would gather to hear preaching. Was it not won-
derful ?
Titus Coan 147
In two years, seven or eight thousand natives
had professed to be Christians, but thus far only a
few had been taken into the church. The mission-
ary wished to be very sure that the people were
true followers of Jesus. So the very greatest care
was used in choosing the ones to be received, and
in examining them, watching and teaching them.
On the first day of July, 1838, 1,705 persons united
with the church, and that afternoon 2,400 commu-
nicants sat down at the Lord's table together.
In five years 7,557 were received, and now you
know the membership of the largest church in the
world in the middle of the nineteenth century.
And nearly all proved faithful. Seven churches
were made out of this one, six of them with native
pastors. The good missionary died at Hilo in 18 82,
XXXY
JOHN G. PATON
^< The Saint John of the New Hebrides " (1857-1907)
LET us look at some fascinating pictures
which this wonderful missionary has left
for us in the story of his life. The first
one is that of his little home in dear old Scotland,
in the county of Dum-
fries. We see the boy's
birthplace, a little cot-
tage in the parish of
Kirkmahoe, where, on
May 24, 1824, he saw
the light. This place is
in the background. In
the foreground stands
the home in the busy
village of Torthorwald, whither the child was taken
when five years old, and where the staunch, godly
Scotch parents, in the forty years that went by,
brought up their five sons and six daughters, and
saw them go out into the world.
The cottage has stout oaken ribs, which the
years of peat smoke have " japanned '■ until they
shine, and they are too hard to drive a nail into
them. The roof is thatched, the walls are of stone,
plastered, or pointed, with sand, clay and lime
148
John G; Paton 149
There in the front of the three roomed house we
see the mother's domain, kitchen, parlour and bed-
room in one, and in the rear room, the father's
stocking-frames, five or six of them, which busy
fingers keep in use betimes. The merchants of the
county know and prize the good work of those
frames.
There is a middle room, called a closet, which
is "the sanctuary"; for here, in the bare little
place, with only space for bed, table, and chair,
with a small window to light it, the father goes by
himself and " shuts to the door " daily, and often
three times a day. The children know that he is
praying, and sometimes hear his voice through the
shut door, but it is too sacred a thing to talk about.
The one who is to become a great missionary never
loses the memory of that place and those prayers,
and often says to himself, " He walked with God,
why may not I ? "
The thatched cottage with oaken ribs is the
scene of busy days and happy Sabbaths, when
churchgoing, and Bible stories and the Shorter
Catechism at home, are not tasks but pleasures.
Then we see the school days, and, when the boy is
twelve, the learning of the father's trade, with long
hours daily, and all the spare minutes spent in
study of first lessons in Greek and Latin. The boy
has early decided to become a missionary, and even
at the stocking-frames learns some things in the
use of tools, and the watching of machinery, worth
much to him in coming days and far-off fields.
The second r)icture that we look upon, as we fol'
150 Fifty Missionary Heroes
low the early days of the youth who is to be a mis*
sionary to distant savages, shows us many things
We see him working, saving, studying, going to
school, earning money, going through all sorts of
struggles and trials, teaching school, managing the
unruly scholars without beating them with the
heavy stick given him with which to " keep order,"
and finally, we behold him as a city missionary.
His district is dreadfully poor and degraded, and
after a year's work, there are but six or seven won
to churchgoing to show for it.
But the indefatigable young city missionary
struggles on. A kind Irishwoman whose husband
beats her, when drunken, and whose life is a toil-
some one, gives the lower floor of her house for
meetings. Classes are organized, meetings held in
various places, visits are made continually, and the
work grows wonderfully. The churches near re-
ceive many new members from this field, and eight
lads work their way through educational courses to
enter the ministry. So ten busy, burdened, and
useful, happy years pass by.
Now comes a third picture, which shows us the
call to the foreign field. The Reformed Church of
Scotland, in which Mr. Paton has been brought up,
calls for a new missionary to help Mr. Inglis in the
New Hebrides. Not one can be found, after most
earnest prayer and the use of all possible means.
Young Mr. Paton is deeply interested. He
hears the heavenly Father's voice saying, " Since
none better can be got, rise and offer yourself." He
almost answers aloud, " Here am I, send me^'' but
John G. Paton I Jl
is afraid of being mistaken. At last, however,
he feels impelled to make the offer, and he is joy-
fully received and accepted. His city mission
parishioners rebel, and every effort is made to keep
him from leaving them, but nothing now can dis-
suade him. His parents bid him Godspeed, saying,
" We long ago gave you away to the Lord, and in
this matter also, would leave you to God's disposal."
Then he hears for the first time that at his birth
he was dedicated to missionary work, if God should
call, and that they have prayed ever since, that their
first-born might be prepared and sent as a messenger
to the heathen. The young missionary's happy
marriage follows, and his departure with his bride
for the cannibal island of Tanna, New Hebrides, in
the far South Seas. He is now thirty-two and the
time is December, 1857.
Let us turn to the fourth picture, which shows us
the island of Tanna. Dr. Inglis, and some native
Christian teachers from the partly Christianized
island of Aneityum, go with Mr. Paton, while Mrs.
Paton stays for a while with the missionaries' wives
who can tell her much of mission work, and she
joins her husband later. The first view of the
naked, painted, miserable savages gives a feeling
of horror as well as of pity. They come crowding
round to see the building of a wooden, lime-plastered
house, chattering like monkeys.
"Whatever interchange there is, must be by signs
at first. One day the clever missionary notices a
man lifting up some article that is strange, and ask-
ing another '' I^ungsi nari enu ? " He decides that
152 Fifty Missionary Heroes
this means " What is it ? " and tries it again and
again upon different natives. They always answer
by giving the name he wishes. Again he hears a
stranger asking, " Se nangin ? " pointing to the
missionary. " He is asking my name," thinks Mr.
Paton. It is true, and another phrase of the lan-
guage is added to his vocabulary. So he goes on,
picking out words and meanings.
The natives have quantities of stone idols and
charms, which they reverence with boundless
superstition. They also have devil-kings and
witch-doctors. And, as you know, they are can-
nibals, and several men are killed and eaten not
far from the new house going up. The boy from
Aneityum, once a servant of Dr. Inglis, is much dic-
tressed that the blood has been washed into the
water of a boiling spring, and no water can be
found for the tea. He seems to think this is the
very worst of these savage doings — they have
spoiled the tea- water.
The days go on, the house is occupied, a little
son brings gladness. But alas, the house is built
too near the shore. Says an old chief, " Missi, you
will die here. We sleep on the hills and trade- winds
keep us well. You must go sleep on the hill."
But before this can be done, ague and fever attack
the young mother of the wee baby boy, and before
long, there is a quiet grave in which mother and
child lie asleep, and the broken-hearted missionary
says afterwards, " But for Jesus and His fellowship,
I must have gone mad beside that grave and died."
He has mauy sweet memories, and among them the
John G. Paton 153
words before his wife died, " I do not regret leaving
home and friends. If I had it to do over, I would
do it with more pleasure, yes, with all my heart."
This picture of life in Tanna is a panorama, and
we watch it as it moves. We see the good mission-
ary's constant kindness and patience, as he lovingly
tells the savages of Jesus, gathering them together
as he can, bearing with them in spite of their
treacheries, continual thieving, lying, and cruelties.
Sometimes they pretend to be friendly, sometimes
there is encouragement in the work, and then they
grow fierce and abusive, and again and again try
to kill the man who has come, for love's sake, to
help them.
One day there comes a ship of war from England
to touch at the island. " Missi, will the captain
ask if Ave have stolen your things ? " asks a fright-
ened native. "I expect he will," answers Mr.
Paton. " I must tell him the truth."
Now what a scurrying hither and yon to bring
back stolen things, till men come running, this one
with a pot, another with a blanket or a pan, and so
they gather a great heap together. " Missi, Missi,
do tell us, is it all here ? " they cry. " I do not see
the hd of my kettle," he says, and one answers, " It
is on the other side of the island. I have sent for
it ; teU him not, for it will be here to-morrow."
For a while the wholesome effect of the ship's
visit lasts, then is lost. The natives have a ceremony
called Xahak, a sort of incantation by the sacred men.
causing the death of any one made the subject of
it. To carry this out, they must have some fruit,
154 Fifty Missionary Heroes
of which the victim has taken a taste. Mr. Paton,
when threatened, gives them some plums, which he
has tasted, and the men vainly try to work Nahak.
They explain their failure by saying that Missi is
also a sacred man and his God works for him.
Again and again the missionary is beset, muskets
aimed at him, " killing stones " thrown, clubs raised
to strike, but all in vain. He never shows fear,
but stands praying inwardly, and, as by miracle,
his life is spared.
But wars multiply, opposition grows, sickness
wastes, and at last the faithful missionary has to
escape, after unimaginable perils, and take refuge in
a passing vessel. It wrings his heart to leave Tanna,
but it is the only way to save his life.
And now we see the brave man travelling in
Australia and elsewhere, securing money to build
the mission ship Dayspring. Thousands listen to
the story of peril and of need which he has to tell,
and the money is given.
Again we look, and see him in Scotland, and it
would be wonderful to follow him in his tours
in which he accomplishes so much for the beloved
Work.
The last picture upon which we may look shows
Dr. Paton returning to the New Hebrides — not
alone, for he takes a devoted wife with him, and
he only touches at Tanna, where he may not stay,
though some who remember his teachings beg him
to do so. Other missionaries finally take up the
work there, and blessings follow. Dr. Paton goes
to Aniwa, and here the islanders receive him
John G. Paton 155
kindly. Yet they have a savage way of asking
for anything, and swinging the tomahawk to
enforce their requests.
A mission house of six rooms is finally built,
then two orphanages, a church and schoolhouses.
An old chief becomes a Christian. Many poor
creatures began to wear a bit of calico by way of
clothing — the first sign of turning in the right
way.
And sometimes very funny things happen in this
connection. Nelwang elopes with Yakin, who
has thirty other admirers, and they keep out of
the way a long time. When at last they come to
church, Nelwang is wearing shirt and kilt, but
Yakin's bridal gown is a man's drab greatcoat
buttoned tight to her heels, with a vest hung over
this. A pair of men's trousers are put round her
neck, on one shoulder is fastened a red shirt, and
on the other a striped one, and around her head is
a red shirt twisted turban- wise, a sleeve hanging
over each ear.
The thing which at last " breaks the back of
heathenism " is the sinking of a well in the island
where water is very scarce and precious. The
natives are affrighted at the thought of trying to
bring '^ rain from below," but Dr. Paton digs first
and then hires the men with fish-hooks, and prays
earnestly as he works, and at last water is found —
enough for all, and the natives say "Jehovah is
the true God." Triumphs of grace follow — ^jour-
neys in other lands to tell the story, and in 1907
this missionary hero enters into rest.
XXXYI
CHAELOTTE MARIA TUCKER
^nown as a writer by the initials "' A, L. 0, E,^^ {A Lady oj
England)
Missionary to India at Her Own Charges (1875-1893)
THE boys and girls who lived a while before
you came upon the scene, many of them
now men and women, used to know the
initials at the head of this chapter very well
indeed. They appeared on the title-pages of inter-
esting books for young people, and " A. L. O. E."
was known and loved by thousands of readers.
She was an English lady, born in 1821, but she
died in Amritsar, India, in December, 1893. How
did this writer of captivating stories, which made
her famous, come to finish her life in that far-off
land?
It was when she was fifty-four that Miss Tucker
decided to become a missionary, and to go to
India. It was love that constrained her, and she
was so anxious to go that she went at her own
expense. Before going out she studied Urdu, one
of the various tongues spoken in the country.
Almost as soon as she arrived upon her chosen
field, she turned her thoughts towards the special
work of writing stories for the natives. This cer-
tainly was an original plan, and it proved to be a
is6
Charlotte Maria Tucker 157
very helpful one indeed. Her stories were often
parables, by which she taught truth in a fascinating
fashion. You know that the Orientals are, if
possible, even more fond of stories, particularly
parables with picturesque settings, than we are in
this country. You can imagine how the stories of
such a writer as A. L. O. E. would be enjoyed.
The wonderful part of it was, that she found it
easy to enter into the feelings and thoughts of the
people, and to adapt her stories to their language
and their needs.
A series of stories explaining Jesus' parables
was printed in tract form so that the poorest could
buy them.
Going to Batala Miss Tucker worked among the
Mohammedans, the hardest class to reach. She
went about among the zenanas — or apartments
where the women were shut up — and on gaining
admittance would sit down gracefully upon the
floor, as if she were one of the women used to
such a thing, and would begin by telling a story or
showing a picture. Then she would go on to
teach some precious lesson of truth to the curious
listeners.
The boys of the high school interested this mis*
sionary very much, and she did a great deal for
them. For a while she lived in the school building,
once a palace.
The Sweeper class is the lowest caste in India
They are treated as if they had no souls at all
But Miss Tucker was greatly interested in thes^
poor outcasts. She showed by her loving care
1 58 Fifty Missionary Heroes
that she not only believed that they had souls,
but that she cared for them and wished to help
them.
For eighteen years this heroic missionary gave
her life, at its sunset time, to the women of India,
and at seventy-two laid down the burden.
Think how long the work of the hands may live
after the hands are folded. The busy pen which a
loving heart kept moving, has left its traces on
both sides of the sea. The fair-faced and the dark-
faced boys and girls have bent above the pages
which still keep alive the lovely memory of " J^
Lady Of England."
XXXYII
JOHN COLEEIDGE PATTESON
Famous English Oarsman^ Then Bisliop^ and '^ Martyr
of Melanesia^ " South Sea Islands.
1856 to 1871)
{From About
A YOUNG man can be an athlete and yet
become a missionary, and, very likely, be
all the better missionary for it. Certainly
a strong body is an excellent missionary asset.
John Coleridge Pat-
teson was a leader in
all athletic sports as a
youth, and was a fa-
mous oarsman. He
was a grand-nephew
of the poet, Samuel T.
Coleridge, and was born
in London in 1827. He
was finely educated,
being graduated from Oxford.
The young man became a curate of the Church
of England, but a year after he was ordained, sailed
to the Melanesian Islands in the South Pacific. He
went with the famous Bishop Selwyn, who, through
a simple clerical error in making out the boundaries,
was given the largest diocese ever assigned to a
bishop.
159
l6o Fifty Missionary Heroes
On the voyage to the South Seas, Mr. Pattesoi.
studied the Maori language, and was soon able to
speak it. He helped Bishop Selw3ni for five yearif
in conducting a native training school for preparing
assistants. In 1861 he was made Bishop of thf
Melanesian Islands. After this he reduced to
writing several of the island languages which had
never before been written. This was a great serv-
ice, for which his native ability as a linguist, and
his wide studies, had prepared him.
Grammars in these languages were next pre-
pared, and parts of the New Testament translated
into the Lifu tongue.
The Bishop's headquarters were at Moto, in
Northern New Hebrides, and from there he went
about to other islands of his diocese in a mission
ship called The Southern Cross. It might be said
to have been fitted out by the point of a pen, for
this was done by Miss Charlotte M. Yonge, the
writer, with the proceeds of her book, " The Heir
of Kedcliffe." Was it not a beautiful thing to do ?
It should be known by all who read the interesting
book.
One day you might have seen the Bishop cruising
among the islands, and nearing Nakapu. A boy
has been stolen lately from this island by some
white traders. The islanders are fiercely set upon
revenge, but the good Bishop is unsuspicious. He
lowers his boat from The Southern Cross and rows
out to meet the men coming in their canoes. After
their custom, they invite him to enter one of their
boats, which he does, and is taken ashore. He is
John Coleridge Patteson l6l
never seen alive again. Search is made for the un-
returning friend, and his body is found pierced with
five wounds. So, in the year 1871, the Martyr of
Melanesia wins his crown.
His place among the hero-dead
Who still are truly living,
This martyr takes, whose hero-life
Gave cause for such thanksgiving.
He is but one, but he is one
Of that great host uncounted.
Whose valorous souls, by sword and flame
To heights celestial mounted.
Why still the moviug stories tell ?
Because the tales are deathless,
And we should do far more this day
Than listen, thrilled, and breathless.
Not to their crowns may we aspire,
But to their quenchless, high desire.
XXXYIII
8
SAMUEL CROWTHER
The Slave-Boy Who Became a Bishop, (Missionary and
Bishop from I864. to 1891)
IF you could have looked down upon the shore
of Africa, in the Yoruba country, long ago,
you might have seen a black boy playing
about. If you had watched, you might have seen
him suddenly seized by
strangers who landed
from a ship, and carried
off to be pushed cruelly
into the hold of a Portu-
guese slaver. You have
heard, perhaps, that long
ago such wicked deeds
were done, and money
was made by seizing and
selling as slaves the poor, helpless Africans.
Following this boy you might have seen that he
was wretched enough, till, by a kind Providence,
he was rescued and set free. He was taken to
Sierra Leone, and one of the very first things he did
was to beg a half-penny to buy an alphabet card
for himself, so anxious was he to learn to read. He
was such a bright boy, that in six months he learned
to read, and in five years entered college, where,
162
Samuel Crowther 163
not long after, he was made a tutor. Could an
American boy do much better ?
The most important event of the boy's life was
his becoming a Christian and giving himself to
Christian service. Time went on, and from being
a tutor, Samuel Crowther became a minister, and
then, in 1864, was made a bishop. He was the first
black bishop of modern times in Africa. He planted
mission stations all along the banks of the Niger
iliver. He had wonderful wisdom and tact in deal-
ing with different people, and won their confidence
in a remarkable way.
This man had also great abilityo He was quite a
discoverer, and was given a gold watch by the
Eoyal Geographical Society as a reward for his
travels and researches. He assisted in translating
a part of the Bible and a part of the prayer-book
into the language of Yoruba. Although he had
learning and honour, he was one of the humblest
of men. His humility increased as others appre-
ciated him more.
One of the most intense longings of the good
man's heart was to find his mother from whom he
was torn as a boy, and tell her about Jesus. He
could not hear anything about her, nor find her in
any way.
But one day a most wonderful thing happened,
although it was not too hard for God to do. A
woman came to be baptized, and the Bishop ex-
amined her to see if she understood, and was ready
for baptism. He found that she was indeed a
Christian, but he also found that she was his own
164 Fifty Missionary Heroes
mother. It was hard to tell which of the two was
more joyful, as the Bishop baptized his mother and
received her into the church. He called her " Han-
nah, the mother of Samuel."
In 1891 this first black bishop, with his white
soul, entered into rest.
His life and labours were wonderful, and his
memory still blooms, like a white flower in the
dark soil of Africa, the land he loved.
XXXIX
MES. H. C. MULLENS
{Of India)
" The Apostle of the Zenanas ^^ and ^^ Hie Lady of the
Slippers " {1845-1861)
YOU know what a zenana is, don't you ?
That close-shut apartment in an Indian
house, where the wives of the husband are
shut in, and not allowed to so much as peep out of
a crack ?
The women in the zenanas, whether rich or poor,
have always been sadly ignorant, often very idle,
with nothing to do but comb their hair, look over
their jewels and talk gossip, or quarrel with each
other. They have always been unhappy. How to
reach and teach these imprisoned women, many of
them very young, was one of the first missionary
puzzles. The women could not get out, and the
missionaries could not get in — that is, not for a
long, long while, till the lady of this story came.
If you have never heard about the " slippers " you
shall hear now.
The lady was born in India. Her name was
Hannah Catherine Lacroix, and she was a mission-
ary's daughter. Her birthplace was Calcutta, and
the year was 1826. Her father was intensely in-
terested in his work, and was especially anxious
1 66 Fifty Missionary Heroes
about the women of India. The daughter seemed
to breathe the spirit of her parents from childhood.
She had not a chance to receive a very finished
education, but she was very bright, and made the
best use of the opportunities that she had. She
spoke Bengali very fluently, and was so intelligent,
loving, and sympathetic, that when she was only
twelve, she was able to help her mother by taking
a class of children in the day school, started in the
missionary's garden.
When about fifteen she gave her heart to the
Lord Jesus, and became much more earnest about
helping others to know Him. She gathered the
servants and taught them, and had other classes.
At nineteen she married Kev. Dr. Mullens, of the
London Missionary Society, and the two were very
happy together in the work they loved so dearly.
The wife became so well acquainted with the lan-
guage that her father said that he might be able to
preach a better sermon, but his daughter could
carry on conversation much better than he could.
A little book that she wrote for native Christian
women, was printed in twelve dialects of India.
But how about the zenana and the slippers?
Well, there is a very close connection. Mrs. Mul-
lens had great skill with her needle, and did beauti-
ful embroidery. One day a native gentleman was
visiting the house. Mrs. Mullens was working a
pair of slippers. The gentleman noticed and ad-
mired her work very much.
"I should like my wife taught such things," he
said, finally. Quick as a flash the missionary said.
Mrs. H. C. Mullens 167
" I will come and teach her." The slippers thus
opened the way to the zenana in the first place.
JS'ext a school was planned, and by and by, after
the first opportunities, the missionary ladies had
access to many shut-in women, and the work grew.
In the midst of loving labours, Mrs. Mullens' fife
ended at thirty-five, in 1861.
The embroidery needle that she used so skillfully
is lost, and the work of the busy fingers worn out
long ago. Both answered their end, simple as they
were. Doors are open to-day, and stand wide,
against which Mrs. Mullens pushed her little needle-
point.
XL
DB. CORNELIUS VAK ALAN VAN DYCK
First Translator of the Bible into Arabic^ and Mission-
ary in Syria for Fifty-Five Years {18Jf5-189S)
THE native doctors, or medicine men, in
heathen lands, give the most horrible
doses, and practice the most dreadful
cruelties imaginable, in their efforts to drive away
disease. A missionary
doctor is a great bless-
ing in any mission field.
Dr. Yan Dyck was the
second one ever sent to
Syria by the American
Board. The first one
was Dr. Asa Dodge, but
he died in less than two
years, and for five years
there was not a single American physician in the
land of Syria, where once the Great Physician healed
the sick and saved the sinful.
You know that the Scriptures have been called
" Leaves of Healing." They are meant for all the
sin-sick, but have to be given to those in heathen
countries in a way that they can understand. D:j.
Van Dyck was a great translator of God's Word.
His name is always associated with Syria, and with
i68
Dr. Cornelius Van Alan Van Dyke 169
fche giving of the Arabic Scriptures to the world.
Do you know that a large proportion of the heathen
world can be reached by the Arabic tongue ? Mis-
sionaries tell us that this is true.
Cornelius \^an Alan Yan Dyck was born in the
year 1818, in Kinderhook, Columbia County, New
York. After receiving his medical education at
the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, he was
appointed medical missionary to Syria when twenty-
one years of age. The first eight or ten years were
spent in teaching, visiting, preparing text-books,
and attending to the sick in all parts of the large
field. There were wars in the years 1840-1845,
and the good doctor was very busy, ministering to
the wounded and suffering, heroically forgetful of
himself.
When he was twenty-eight he was ordained a
minister of the Gospel, and was thus prepared to
preach as well as to do medical work. Later, he
was so busy going about the country, riding im-
mense distances, that it was said that " the station
was on horseback."
The translation of the Bible into Arabic was be-
gun by Dr. Eli Smith about 1849, and he worked
diligently for eight years until his death, but was
only willing then, to be responsible for the first ten
chapters of Genesis, printed under his own eye. It
was then that Dr. Yan D^^ck took up the work for
which God had been making him ready in various
ways for seventeen years. He had read and mas-
tered a whole Library of Arabic books — poetry, his-
tory, grammar and the rest, and was without an
lyo Fifty Missionary Heroes
equal in command of the language. When printed
the press could not work fast enough to supply the
demand for Bibles.
After fifty-five busy and fruitful years in Syria,
death came in 1895.
The bodies that he healed in that old Bible land
have long since passed away, but the hving message
of the Word of God given to the people through his
splendid service, stili continues.
XLI
ELIAS EIGGS
Missionary to Turkey and Master of Ticelve Languages
{1832-1901)
HAVE you ever stopped to think how hard
it must be to learn the queer languages of
foreign lands ? Of course the different
tongues must be learned, and learned well enough
to speak and read them, or missionary work can-
not be done as it should be done. The natives of
other countries, especially those of degraded hea-
thendom, cannot be taught English, so as to learn
the Truth in that language. They must usually
have it given to them first of all in their " mother-
tongue."
Some have "the gift of tongues" in a higher
degree than others, and this missionary, Elias
Kiggs, who went to Turkey long ago, had very
wonderful ability.
He was born in New Providence, New Jersey, in
the year 1810, and in his early life showed great
talent in learning languages. While in college he
mastered Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Chaldean, and
modern Greek. He even made an Arabic grammar,
and a Chaldean manual. To become on speaking
terms with all these tongues would seem to be an
in
172 Fifty Missionary Heroes
heroic task to some of us. But t'ne young studetit
loved it, and that made it easy.
Dr. Riggs, as he was afterwards known, went
first to join the noted missionary, Dr. Jonas King,
in Greece, in the city of Athens. He sailed, with
his wife, in 1832. After six years he was sent to
Smyrna, Turkey, then to w^ork among the Armeni-
ans, and finally to Constantinople.
During a visit to America, he was engaged as
instructor in Hebrew and Greek in Union Theo-
logical Seminary. Eeturning to Constantinople,
Turkey, he began a translation of the Bible in
Bulgarian. He had added this language to those
with which he was already familiar. Afterwards he
helped in revising the Turkish translation of the
Scriptures. This work, which became the standard
translation, was printed in Armenian and Arabic
characters, so that both common people and scholars
could use it.
School books and devotional books, either trans-
lations or originals, kept the missionary additionally
busy. He translated, or wrote in the first place,
four hundred and seventy-eight hymns in the
Bulgarian tongue, to say nothing of other labours.
Dr. Eiggs was said to have a working knowledge
of twenty languages and was master of twelve. Is
it not wonderful to think of ? How many people
he reached with the Truth ! It is said that four
nations are now reading the Word of God as he
put it into their own speech for them. His trans-
lations are read and sung by tens of thousands,
" from the Adriatic to the Persian Gulf, and from
Elias Riggs 173
the snows of the Caucasus to the burning sands of
Arabia." The devoted missionary died in Constan-
tinople, in 1901.
A son, Dr. Edward Riggs, born in 1844, entered
the work in Turkey, in 1869, his command of the
language being worth a great deal. His life was a
varied one, in opportunities and responsibilities, in
" journe3rings oft" and perils many, robbed and
threatened, but escaping with his life, and going
on fearlessly with his work. His greatest service
was in the theological seminary, but he was so
variously engaged as to be called '' The Bishop of
the Black Sea Coast." He died February 25, 1913,
after forty-four years of service, leaving five of his
seven children in the field.
XLII
ISABELLA THOBURN
Founder of the First Woman's College in India
{1869-1901)
IMAGINE ten children in one family — ^vq boys
and five girls — would there not be lively and
bustling times in that home ? No doubt this
was true of the Thoburn home, in St. Clairsville,
Ohio, where devoted and
godly parents reared this
flock. The mother, es-
pecially, was a wonder-
fully strong character
who had great influence
over her children.
The ninth child and
youngest daughter but
one, was Isabella, who
was born in 1840.
There was nothing very extraordinary about her
in her childhood, but she grew up to do an extra-
ordinary work, and was well prepared for it by a
very good education, and an experience in teach-
ing, first, at the age of eighteen in a country school,
and later as a teacher in two different seminaries
for girls. One characteristic should be noted espe-
cially. Isabella was most faithful and thorough in
everything she did. She would not leave a thing
174
Isabella Thoburn 175
till she understood it absolutely when a student,
nor till she had done her very best as a missionary.
This young woman did not grow up with the
thought of going to the foreign field, but when a
great need caused the call to come, she was ready,
and soon made her decision.
Dr. James Thoburn, first missionary bishop in
India, who has served there fifty years, was the
brother who summoned his sister to the work
abroad. He has had a wonderful and heroic his-
tory himself, and at one time had the greatest bap-
tismal service in India. But there was a time,
after the death of his wife, that was so filled with
difiiculty and anxiety, because he was so unable to
do anything for India's women, and was so weighed
down with their needs that he wrote to his sister,
asking her to join him in the field. This she did,
in 1869, to minister to those poor degraded women,
" Un welcomed at birth, unhonoured in life, unwept
in death." Oh, the pity of it all !
But you are not to think that it was an easy and
simple thing for Miss Thoburn to go when called
and ready. There was no society in the Methodist
Church to send her. She might have gone out un-
der the Woman's Union Missionary Society of JS'ew
York, but she longed most ardently to be sent by
some organization in her own church, to which she
was devotedly attached.
Just at this time of need, Dr. and Mrs. William
Butler, founders of the Methodist Episcopal Mis-
sions in India, and afterwards in Mexico (heroio
workers they), came home, with the wife of Dr.
176 Fifty Missionary Heroes
E. W. Parker, of India. These three talked to
their Boston friends about the things that burned
in their hearts, and at last a meeting for organiza-
tion of women was suggested and appointed. With
the day came a pelting rain, and but six women
gathered to meet Mrs. Butler and Mrs. Parker, who
spoke as eloquently as if to hundreds, l^othing
daunted, the organization of the Woman's Foreign
Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal
Church was formed by these eight brave women.
At the first public meeting it was made known
that a missionary candidate was ready to be re-
ceived. But there was little money in the treasury.
Then a Boston lady sprang up and said, " Shall we
lose Miss Thoburn because we have not money to
send her ? No ! Eather let us walk the streets of
Boston in calico dresses and save the money. I
move the appointment of Miss Thoburn to India."
The ladies cried out, " We will send her," and they
did. So she went, and Dr. Clara Swain, shortly
afterwards found and sent as a medical missionary,
went with her.
From the beginning Miss Thoburn felt that the
India girls and women must be educated, and as
soon as possible began the school which grew into
the famous Girls' Boarding-School and High School,
and finally in 18Y0 into Lucknow Women's College.
But the beginnings were feeble. Seven frightened
girls were coaxed in, and a sturdy boy set at the
door of the room with a club to keep off any in-
truders who might venture to interrupt the pro-
ceedings.
Isabella Thobum 177
To this school and to this remarkable teacher
came, in due time, the high caste, gifted girl,
Lilavati Singh, whose father's views of education
were in advance of the times. Upon one of the
enforced visits home in thirty-two years of serv-
ice. Miss Thoburn brought this cultivated, charm-
ing woman with her. It was in 1898. She
brought this " fragrant flower of womanhood from
India's garden," as sweet as ever bloomed, in order
to have her plead for money for the college build-
ings, $20,000 being the quick response.
It was of Lilavati Singh that President Harrison
said, after hearing her at the Ecumenical Missionary
Conference at New York, that if this one only had
been the result of all money spent for missions, it
was well worth the whole amount.
Miss Thoburn was obliged to remain at home for
some years, but they were not idle. She was for
some time busily engaged with Mrs. Lucy Eider
Meyer in Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Meyer had begun
their spreading work of deaconess homes and train-
ing schools. Miss Thoburn helped to "mother"
the girls in training, and assisted in organizing the
work later in Ohio, planning to introduce it into
India. For this reason she became a deaconess
herself.
The girls all loved Miss Thoburn dearly, and her
work for and among them was a beautiful one. A
little touch may show you that this strong and
heroic character was " one of us " after all, in a
way. She had an odd terror of street cars in that
day, and when crossing a track would run as fast
1 78 Fifty Missionary Heroes
as she could, in spite of her somewhat generous
avoirdupois. She said that it always seemed to her
when she saw one coming, especially at night, as if
it threatened, " I'll have you yet, Isabella."
Eeturning to India in 1900 for further devoted
service, she was attacked with cholera, and went
triumphantly Home in August, 1901, leaving a sor-
rowing multitude.
By and by Miss Singh was given large responsi-
bilities as professor in Miss Thoburn's college, which
she discharged with rare ability and devotion. She
came to America to beg help in enlarging the col-
lege buildings, but died in 1909 after a serious
operation. Her loving friend, Mrs. D. C. Cook of
Elgin, gave her body burial and memorial, and she
sleeps afar from home, but unf orgotten.
XLIII
DR. ELEANOR CHESI^UT
Missionary Martyr of Lien ChoUy China {1893-1905)
A LETTER in a well-reinembered hand lies
upon the desk to-day, in which Eleanor
Chesnut signed herself, in a bright little
sportive way she had,
" Much love
From
Your Chiny Sister,
E. C."
You cannot know, as you read, how hard it is to
write of this dear, per-
sonal friend, once a
visitor in the home,
and bound to the heart
by the tenderest ties.
But it is such a lasting
joy to have known her
that the story must
have a jubilant note in
it, all through, as it
tells of her wonderfully
heroic life and martyr crown. You need not be
afraid to read it, for it should make you glad that
such a brave soul ever lived her Hfe of sacrifice and
service.
It had a very pitiful beginning — this life we are
179
i8o Fifty Missionary Heroes
thinking about now. It began in the town of
Waterloo, Iowa, on January 8, 1868. Just after
Eleanor's birth her father disappeared mysteriously
and was never again heard of. The mother, who
had the respect and sympathy of her neighbours,
died not long after, and the family, consisting of
several brothers and sisters, was scattered.
Eleanor, who was but three at the time, was
adopted, though not legally, by some friendly
people near, who had no children. They had little
money, but did the best they could for her, finding
her a puzzle and a comfort both. In later years
the father spoke of her " loving, kindly ways, her
obedience in the family circle, and her unselfish-
ness."
But the poor child was not happy. She was
lonesome, and longed for mother-love. Well as she
controlled her feelings, she did not like to be re-
strained, and often carried a stormy little heart
within. She was happiest when in school, but
when only twelve, she was distressed to find that
she might have to give up study altogether. It
was then that she went to live with an aunt in
Missouri, in a " backwoods " country, where school
privileges were of the poorest. And besides, the
struggle for life was too hard to allow a chance to
study, or spare anything for the exjDense of school-
ing.
The news of Park CoUege, Parkville, Missouri,
where students had a chance to earn their way, at
least in part, came in some roundabout manner,
and from that monr^ent the girl made up her mind
Dr. Eleanor Chesnut l8l
that she would go, come what might. And go she
did, through the kind encouragement of the presi-
dent of the college. She entered, feeling forlorn
and friendless, but soon found warm friends and
congenial surroundings. Her studies were a con-
tinual delight. But how to live was a problem.
Her family could do little for her, and she had to
take the bounty of missionary boxes, when it came
to clothing. It was such a struggle to accept these
supplies that she could not feel very grateful in her
sensitive heart, but it was really heroic to wear the
things. Don't you think so ?
These hard trials in youth had " peaceable fruits "
afterwards, for they ripened into a wonderful gen-
tleness, sympathy, tact, and understanding, which
made her a blessing to others. Writing to a friend,
in later years, about the poor boys in China need-
ing clothes, she said : " The poor boys ! They are
so shabby that I wish I could do more for them. I
remember how shabby I was at Park College years
ago. I do not mind nearly so much now, wearing
old things."
Outwardly the student was brave and quiet, but
there was a tumult within that was only hushed
when she became a Christian. Afterwards came the
determination to become a missionary. She said a
pathetic thing about this decision. (How it comes
back in her very tones this moment !) She said,
" One thing that made me feel that I ought to go
was the fact that there was really no one to mind
very much if I did ^' But this was not said in a
dismal, self-pitying way. The larger reason she
l82 Fifty Missionary Heroes
gave at another time and place, when asked for it ih
connection with her appointment. She said simply
that it was " a desire to do good in what seemed
the most fitting sphere."
In 1888, on leaving Park College, the young girl
entered upon the study of medicine. She had no
great natural love for the profession, but, as she
confided, it seemed as if it would add so much to
her usefulness. She said that it was very hard the
first year, and she wondered if she could go on and
finish the course, but she resolved that she would.
And she did, with a resolute will, even becoming
interested in it, as she plunged heart and mind into
the study that she was sure would make her more
helpful. But a missionary friend, who knew her
well in Lien Chou, said afterwards that this girl
should have been an artist, not a doctor, if her real
nature had been consulted, and that it was per-
fectly heroic in her to practice medicine and surgery
as she did.
The medical course was taken in Chicago, with
the advantage of a scholarship, but the student
" lived in an attic, cooked her own meals, and almost
starved," as a Chicago friend afterwards insisted.
Her meals were principally oatmeal. A course in
the Illinois Training School for Nurses in Chicago
followed, and some money was earned by nursing
in times allotted for vacations. She served as nurse
to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes in his final illness.
The training was made more complete by a winter
in an institution in Massachusetts, and then came d
course of Bible training in Moody Institute, Chicagro.
Dr. Eleanor Chesnut 183
In 1893 Dr. Chesnut was appointed as medical
missionary to the foreign field, and was assigned
to China. She had a strange, natural aversion to
the water, but was a brave sailor notwithstanding.
After a little time at Sam Kong, studying the
language, and doing some incidental work, the
doctor was appointed to Lien Chou. From a letter
in print this extract is taken. (You can see that she
was " a saint with a sense of humour," bless her *
There was some good Irish blood in her, which no
doubt gave the twinkle in her brown eyes.)
" Here I am at last. I had a few things carried
overland. The boats are on their way. They have
divided their cargoes with several others, and are
floating the hospital bed-boards and my springs.
Won't they be rusty ? I only hope they won't try
to float the books and the organ. I don't mind
being alone here at all. ... I have to perform
all my operations in my bathroom, which was as
small as the law allowed before. JSTow, with an op-
erating table, it is decidedly full. But I do not
mind these inconveniences at all. ... A drug-
gist gave me a prescription which you may find use-
ful, though the ingredients may be more difiicult to
procure in America than in China. You catch some
little rats before they get their eyes open, pound to
a jelly, and add lime and peanut oil. Warranted to
cure any kind of an ulcer."
A missionary from Lien Chou lately told how
Dr. Chesnut began the building of a hospital.
When her monthly salary -payment came she saved
out $1.50 for her living, and with the rest bought
184 Fifty Missionary Heroes
bricks. At last the Board in New York found this
out, and insisted upon paying back what she had
spent on bricks for the hospital. She refused to
take the whole sum, saying that to do it " would
spoil all her fun."
The story of the amputation of a Chinese coolie's
leg without any surgical assistance has gone far
and wide. The operation was successful, but the
flaps of skin did not unite as the doctor hoped, and
she knew that any failure in getting well would be
resented by the people, and perhaps result in a mob.
By and by the man recovered perfectly, and, later,
the doctor secured some crutches for him from
America. But, at the time, it was noticed that
Dr. Chesnut was limping. There was no use
in asking her why, for the slightest hint brought
out the words, " Oh, it's nothing." But one of the
women betrayed the truth. The doctor had taken
skin from her own leg to transplant upon what the
woman called " that good-for-nothing coolie," and
had done it without an anaesthetic, save probably
a local application, transferring it at once to the
patient. What do you think of heroism like that ?
And then to say nothing about it !
When the Boxer troubles sent foreigners to the
coast for safety, Dr. Chesnut refused to go for some
months, and went at last under pressure from oth-
ers, not from fear. She returned in the spring.
That same season she came home on furlough, when
" none knew her but to love her." A tour among
societies supporting a ward in Lien Chou Hospital
endeared her to many. She was so bright, so en-
Dr. Eleanor Chesnut 185
gaging, so interesting, and withal showing a sweet
humility most touching. At this time she had the
first silk dress ever owned. It must have been
given to her !
Returning to her work for two busy, blessed
years, there came the October day in 1905 when a
mob, excited and bent on trouble, attacked the hos-
pital. Dr. Chesnut, coming upon the scene, hurried
to report to the authorities, and might have escaped,
but returned to see if she could help others, and
met her cruel death at the hands of those she would
have saved. Her last act was to tear strips from
her dress to bandage a wound she discovered in the
forehead of a boy in the crowd. The crown of
martyrdom was then placed upon her own head.
" She being dead, yet speaketh."
Note. — ^The sketch of Dr. Chesnnt by Dr. Robert Speer, in the
book, "The Servants of the King," has furnished manj of ^e
items in this story.
XLiy
CALVIN WILSON MATEEE
Founder of Shantung College^ China {186S-1908)
DO missionaries need to know anything be-
sides books, preaching, and teaching ?
Indeed they do, and the more things they
know and can do, the better.
This famous mission-
ary of forty-five years
in China, will not only
be remembered as the
founder of a school that
became under his care a
great college and then a
university, but as a man
who could turn his hand
to almost anything, and
turn it to good purpose,
too. He was master of many kinds of machinery
and knew how to harness electricity to his work, in
addition to skill in many other directions.
The boy who grew up to do so many things well,
was born in the beautiful Cumberland Valley, not
far from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1836. His
father and mother were staunch, devoted, Scotch-
Irish folk, who brought up their seven children " in
the fear of the Lord faithfully." Although the
i86
Calvin Wilson Mateer 187
farmer-father used to start the work of the day by
baving breakfast before daylight, even in summer,
Very often, there was always time for morning and
€;vening family worship, and usually with singing,
led by the father's fine tenor voice.
The boys and girls of this household thought it
no hardship to learn the Westminster Shorter Cate-
chism thoroughly. We know that they thought
well of it, for we hear that when busy with picking
out stones and bits of slate turned up by the plow,
in ground none too fertile, they used to divert
themselves by saying the catechism now and then,
as something far more interesting — as indeed it
was.
There was a mill in connection with the father's
place, where he hulled clover-seed. Eunning water
turned the wheel. As a very little boy, Calvin
used to wish that he were tall enough to reach the
lever and turn on more water, so as to make the
wheel go faster. All his life long he was eager to
turn on power, and make things " go " and " go
faster " if he could, by any hard work of his own.
When the boy was five, his parents moved to a
farm twelve miles north of Gettysburg, near what
is now York Springs, Adams County, Pa. Here
they lived till Calvin was about ready to be gradu
ated from college. The family moved twice after-
wards, finally settling in Monmouth, Illinois, but it
was the Adams County home that the missionary
meant when he wrote : " There are all the fond
recollections and associations of my childhood."
One who knows anything about Gettysburg an(?
lb8 Fifty Missionary Heroes
vicinity will agree to its being an earthly paradise,
and will be glad that a missionary had a chance to
grow up there.
The home was named " The Hermitage," because
it seemed " far from everywhere." It was believed
to be haunted by the ghost of a tenant who was
buried in an old deserted churchyard a mile dis-
tant. It was said that the sunken mound would
not stay filled, and also that a headless man had
been seen wandering round in the dark wood at
night. The Mateer children used to go to the old
empty church and burying-ground in the daytime,
but Calvin used to run by at night with a fast-beat-
ing heart, if obliged to pass at all. He decided
that he would not give up to such fear. One night
he went and sat on the graveyard fence, determined
to stay till he did not feel afraid any more. There
he sat while owls hooted and winds shrieked, till
he felt that the victory was won. He did not
know then that he was disciplining himself for
things more heroic in China.
After attending school and academy, and work-
ing at home at intervals, the youth taught school
when not eighteen, and looking younger, in order
to help on the college education fund. Many of
the scholars were older than he, and some of the
boys were very rough, but the teacher held his
own, and got a great deal of good discipline
besides.
The thought of missionary work was in the
young man's mind from boyhood, although, he
said, " as a dim vision and half -formed resolution.''
Calvin Wilson Mateer 189
Yet it did not fade, but brightened with the years.
It was his mother's influence very largely that
strengthened it. Through the struggles for educa-
tion, she kept it before all her children that they
should prepare themselves to carry the Good 'News
to the heathen, or do God's work at home.
Foreign missionary books and magazines were
read in the family. Long before pretty mite-boxes
were given freely by Mission Boards, Mrs. Mateer
made one with her own hands (it was early in the
forties) and covered the little wooden thing with
flowered wall paper. It stood on the parlour
mantel, an object of intense interest to the children
because it meant so much to " mother." It was a
delight to earn pennies, or go without things for
sake of the box, and when a silver coin could be
dropped in, it was a joyous occasion. Once a year
the box was opened. It was a red-letter day. The
mother lived to see four of her children in China.
Between college and theological seminary, Mr.
Calvin Mateer took charge of an academy in
Beaver. He was very successful, but the thing
that we like to note in this is, that there Rev. J. R.
Miller, D. D., whom so many of us knew and loved
for his books and Sunday-school writings, was a
pupil, and said that he owed more, perhaps, to Mr.
Mateer than to any one, for the shaping of his life.
At last, after long preparation, and some trying
detentions, the missionary and his bride took their
way to China. They went in a sailing vessel, while
the battle of Gettysburg was going on, and not till
October, when overtaken by another vessel, did
I go Fifty Missionary Heroes
they know how it ended. The captain was coarse,
even cruel, the accommodations were incredibly un-
comfortable, but at last the voyage ended.
Then began the forty-five years of strenuous and
devoted service, with but three vacations at home=
Dr. Mateer had a marvellous mastery of Chinese,
a great gift in adapting himself to conditions, and
of making what he could not get, in the way of
equipment. His wife was indeed a helpmeet.
After her death and the lonely years following,
the home was reestablished, with Mrs. Ada Mateer
to make it bright. (In time of the Boxer troubles
she was one of those who did valiant service in
making sand bags, by way of barricading the
enemy.) The great Shantung College, always as-
sociated with Dr. Mateer, began as a school with
six boys. Before the founder passed away there
were five hundred students, and it had passed from
being a college into a university, to be a lasting
memorial. The missionary's literary labours were
also prodigious. It is almost incredible — the num-
ber and extent of these. He died in 1908, and
sleeps in China, where the great changes that he
foresaw, prophesied, and, in his measure, helped to
bring about, are now going on.
The veteran Dr. Hunter Corbett, of Chefoo,
close friend and co-labourer, outlived Dr. Mateer,
and has just now completed fifty years of service.
XLV
DR. EGERTON R. YOUNG
Missionary Pioneer and Pathfinder of Canada
{1868-1909)
IF you have never read " By Canoe and Dog-
train," you have a thrilling pleasure before
you, which I am sure you will not put off any
longer than need be. You will probably not stop
till you have read also,
" On the Indian Trail,"
" My Dogs in the North-
land," and one or two
others available. They
are full of wonderful
adventures, told in a
fascinating fashion, by
the man who braved
untold dangers and dif
ficulties, to win un-
counted Indians for
his Master. Dear me! If only you could have
heard him lecture, you would have been glad of it
for a lifetime.
Mrs. Young was as heroic as her husband, when
they gave up the comforts of home and parish in a
civilized land, to go to the far l^orthland on the
mission of mercy. It was in 1868 that the first
journey was taken, followed by many others, quite
191
192 Fifty Missionary Heroes
beyond telling in this small space. They camped
on prairies, forded bridgeless rivers, waded wide
streams, went in canoes, sometimes carrying an ox
that in his bigness sprawled over the sides, and had
more hair-breadth escapes and adventures than you
could count.
Mrs. Young did not always go with her husband,
but often it was as heroic to stay where she did, and
allow him to go over unknown trails through snow
and ice and bitter cold. On their first northward
journey it took two and a half months to reach their
destination, Norway House. Dr. Young's parish
stretched north and south five hundred miles, and
was sometimes three hundred miles wide.
On his trips he slept in holes dug in the snow
when it was thirty to sixty below zero. His Indian
runners, sometimes twenty or more, ran beside the
dog-train. Sometimes the missionary's face and
feet were both bruised and bleeding. Sometimes
he was wet with cold sweat which froze, and made
his clothes like stiff leather. Sometimes his guides
had to build a fire in the snow where their daunt-
less leader took off his clothes to dry them and warm
his body. Typhoid fever and other illnesses some-
times followed, but as soon as he was well he took
up his work once more, and was away on his
travels.
Often the sunlight on the snow was so dazzling
that it was impossible to travel in daytime, for fear
of being blinded, and the journeys had to be made
by night, under the stars. Over vast tracks he
went, meeting the Indians at their council fires, and
Dr. Egerton R. Young 193
in their wigwams, talking with them and showing
them the Way of life. He understood their natures
well, and had great power over them.
Wild savages became gentle, horrid idols were
put away, the rattles and drums of the medicine
men were hushed, with their dreadful yells. Crops
were raised, and the first wheat was winnowed by
shaking it in sheets which Mrs. Young sewed to-
gether to hold it while the wind scattered the chaff.
The missionaries lived, as did the Indians, princi-
pally on fish, 10,000 being caught and frozen in the
fall, to keep tk family and the dogs till April.
As the missionary's fame grew, many came beg-
ging for teaching. A chief tainess came after two
weeks' journey, to spend two weeks with them, and
learn the truth. She was given a calendar to show
when Sabbath day came, and sent home, after faith-
f ul teaching. She begged for a visit, and received
it, though it took two weeks' travel over ledges of
ice overhanging a rapid river.
For some time before his death. Dr. Young gave
himself up to lecturing, and enlightening others, in
America, Great Britain and Australia, concerning
the Indian work.
He was entertained by President Cleveland in
the White House, and honoured everywhere.
His brave life ended here in 1909.
XLYI
DE. HE¥EY HAEEIS JESSUP
Missionary in Syria for Fifty-four Team's {1855-1910)
IS it not sad to think that in Syria, from which
land our Bible came, the light went out long
ago, and needed to be rekindled ? Mission-
aries were needed there for this work, and you will
like to hear of one great,
splendid man who spent
fifty-four years of service
in this old Bible Land.
In Montrose, Pennsyl
vania, in the year 1832,
the boy w^as born who
was to give such a long
life of labour to Syria.
He was the sixth of eleven
children. All but one of
these lived to grow up. It must have been a lively
family group. It really was, and a happy one, too,
with a devoted father and mother to bring them
up " in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
The father was chairman of the Platform Com-
mittee in Chicago, in the convention that nominated
Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency. After the
committee had done its work, Mr. Jessup and
another delegate went to their room at the hotel,
194
Dr. Henry Harris Jessup 195
knelt down together, and commended it all " to God
who was the Judge of all and who could give suc-
cess." This shows something of the character of
the father of the missionary.
It is always interesting to know how the thought
of going as a missionary first came to any messen-
ger. With Dr. Jessup it came when he was twenty,
and was leading a missionary meeting. He told
what he could on the subject of the hour, and urged
all to support the work, adding an appeal to those
to go themselves, who were able to do it. The
thought suddenly came to him that it was very in-
consistent in him to do that, when he was not ready
to go himself. He felt that he ought to take his
own advice. The Day of Prayer for Colleges
strengthened the feeling, and the decision was made
fully, not long after. He studied medicine as well
as theology, and also dentistry, so that he might be
better prepared for work. In June, 1854, he de-
cided for Syria.
Before he went out the missionary talked to a
large number of children in a meeting in JSTewark,
N. J. He said to them : " When you go home I
want you to go by yourselves, and write down this
resolution: 'Eesolved that, if God will give me
grace, I will be a missionary.' " Thirteen years
afterwards, when home on furlough. Dr. Jessup went
to J^ewark to give the charge to a young mission-
ary, Mr. James Dennis. He was entertained in the
home of the young man's mother, who told this
story : " After my boy came home from your meet-
ing years ago, he said to me, * Mother, T have writ-
196 Fifty Missionary Heroes
ten down that, if the Lord will give me grace, 1
will be a missionary.' I said, ' Jimmy, you are too
young to know what you will be.' He answered,
* I did not say " I will be," but " if God will give
me grace I will be a missionary." ' And now,"
said the mother, " you are here to set him apart to
be a missionary."
Long afterwards Dr. Jessup said, "Dr. James
Dennis has done more for the cause of missions
than any other living man that I know. For
twenty-three years we have been intimate fellow-
workers in Syria." Dr. Dennis' books in Arabic
and English are of untold value, especially his
"Christian Missions and Social Progress." Dr.
Jessup said, " God must have put it into my heart
to ask the children that day to make that reso-
lution."
In December, 1855, the sailing vessel, the SuUanay
sailed away for Smyrna, having eight missionaries
and a cargo of New England rum on board. Mr.
Jessup was one of the eight missionaries, who must
all have deeply regretted the cargo of rum. Mr.
Jessup had to leave behind the lady who was his
promised wife, on account of her ill healtho It
meant heroism for both, until they could be united.
In February, 1856, after a very stormy and
wretched voyage, Beirut was reached, and the long
term of missionary labour began. In forty-nine
years seven trips home were made. On the field
there was teaching, preaching, writing, journeying,
organizing, and, as one of the greatest achieve-
ment's the superintending of the printing in Arabic
Dr. Henry Harris Jessup 197
of uncounted pages of Scripture and other helps in
the tongue read by so large a portion of the un-
christianized world. At home the time was largely
spent in speaking to people about the field — not
about the missionary, but about his field and the
progress there. When, on being introduced to an
audience, he was lauded for his great work, he bore
it as well as he could, said nothing about it, but as
soon as possible turned attention to Syria, and the
people there, in all their need. He wrote modestly
of himself, " I take no credit for anything God has
helped me to do, or has done through me."
The great-hearted, gifted, devoted missionary
that helped so many of us at home as well as
abroad, fell asleep in Beirut, Syria, April 28, 1910.
Dr. Samuel Jessup
If you will notice carefully you will find that
often more than one from a family goes to the mis-
sion field. Dr. Henry H. Jessup's brother Samuel,
twenty months younger, inspired by his example,
studied for the ministry, became a chaplain in the
Civil War, and then went out to Syria in 1863.
President Lincoln offered him a consulship in
that country, but he resisted the temptation, and
gave up everything for sake of the work. He
went about, a soldierly figure, on horseback a great
deal, doing his tireless, noble work. When he was
about to be removed to another station, where he
would not have so much hard riding to do, the
people protested. When told the reason they said,
198 Fifty Missionary Heroes
" Then let him stay here and just sit, and let us
come and looh at him. That will be enough." A
man of Sidon said, "When Dr. Jessup walked
through the streets there was not a shopkeeper
whom he passed but said, ' Our city is blessed in
having such a man walk its streets.' " Little chil-
dren ran after him, and were never disappointed in
receiving the sweets he always carried in his pock-
ets, to give with kindly words.
After almost fifty years of happy service, Dr.
Jessup entered into rest.
XLYII
MES. A. E. M'FAELAND
The First Missionary in Alaska {1877-1897)
HOW we love to hear of pioneers. When
the pioneer is a woman of dauntless cour-
age and indomitable spirit, har story is
perfectly fascinating. You are certain to think
Mrs. M'Farland's his-
tory very wonderful in-
deed.
When the baby who
was to become the first
missionary in Alaska,
was born in Virginia,
now eighty years ago,
no doubt she looked
much as other babies
do, and no one could
guess what she would grow into. No matter for
that. There was One who took care that she
should be prepared for it, when her work was
ready for her.
To good home training was added the very best
of school advantages to be had, for the girl was
sent to Steuben Wile Seminary, Ohio, well known
in all that region for its excellence. Dr. Charles
C. Beatty was the principal, and his charming wife,
who was known as " Mother Beatty," mothered the
199
200 Fifty Missionary Heroes
girls in a delightful way. You can imagine how
the writer of this story felt a few years ago, on
meeting Mrs. M'Farland, to have her say : " Your
mother, as a young lady, was a f avom^ite teacher of
mine in Steuben ville. I have never forgotten her."
As quite a young bride, the girl's missionary
work began in Illinois, where her minister-husband
was sent by the Presbyterian Board of Home Mis-
sions. Afterwards, the two were sent to Santa Fe,
New Mexico, the first missionaries of this Board to
go there, and in that difficult field they remained
seven years, till Mr. M'Farland's health broke
down. A change was made to Idaho, where work
was carried on among the Nez Perces Indians until
May, 1876, when the husband died, and after six
months of loneliness, which proved too hard to en-
dure, the wife went to Portland, Oregon.
It was there that she heard of Dr. Sheldon Jack-
son's explorations in Alaska. She was eager for
new work, and hard work, and when Dr. Jackson
came back, just as eager to get some one to return
with him to that desolate and destitute field, Mrs.
M'Farland was ready to go, though no one had
gone before her from America, to begin the work
of teaching. When she got to Alaska she found so
much to do that she had no time to think of her
loneliness, or of much else besides the work that
filled every hour of the day, and sometimes part of
the night. She said afterwards that she never for
a moment regretted going. It was a great grief to
her that, after twenty years, her health failed ano
she had to leave the people she loved so welL
Mrs. A. R. MTarland 20l
It was in August, 1877, that Dr. Sheldon Jack-
son and the "First Missionary" reached Fort
Wrangell. There was a woman a hundred miles
up the Stickeen River, who was out gathering ber-
ries for her winter supply, when she heard of the
arrival. At once she was moved to put her chil-
dren, her bedding and belongings of every sort in a
canoe, and then she paddled home as fast as she
could, to offer such help as she could give, to the new
missionary. She afterwards became her interpreter.
It was rather surprising to hear a bell ringing in
Wrangell, and to see an Indian going up and down
the street with it. This proved to be the call to
afternoon school. For there was a small beginning,
in the way of teaching. It had been made by
Philip MacKay, a Christian native from Canada,
who had begun it the year before, in answer to the
piteous cry for help which had reached him when
he came to the place to cut wood. He belonged to
the Methodist Mission at Fort Simpson. Seeing the
degradation in Fort "Wrangell, he stayed to teach
as best he could, and had a little school which he
handed over to Mrs. M'Farland, and came to it
himself. His original name was Clah, and he was
about thirty years old.
There were thirty scholars on that August day
upon Avhich the newcomer began her school, the
Indian woman, who came back a hundred miles to
help her, doing her best as an interpreter. In the
afternoon Clah preached in the Tsimpsean dialect,
the sermon being interpreted into the Stickeen
language.
202 Fifty Missionary Heroes
The first schoolroom was an old dance hall, and
the new teacher began with four Bibles, four hymn-
books, three primers, thirteen first readers, and one
wall chart. Nothing daunted, she went on, with
such native help as she could get, and taught the
ordinary elementary English branches.
This, the only Christian white woman in the
country, soon became " nurse, doctor, undertaker,
preacher, teacher, practically mayor, and director
of affairs generally," for all came to her for every
sort of thing. People outside began to hear of her,
and to beg for help from her. One old Indian from
a far-away tribe came to her and said : " Me much
sick at heart, my people all dark heart, nobody tell
them that Jesus died. By and by my people all die
and go down — dark, dark."
You can think how such appeals broke the mis-
sionary's heart, when she could do nothing to an-
swer them. She kept writing home, begging for a
minister, a magistrate, or a helper for herself, but
in vain. The mails came by steamer once a month,
and we have a pathetic picture of the lonely woman
going down to the shore to watch the incoming
boat, hoping that there might be a helper aboard,
or a letter promising one. But month after month
she watched in vain.
And she was alone, for as soon as Dr. Jackson
could finish his own special business he sailed away,
and left Mrs. M'Farland in the midst of a thousand
Indians, with few white men, and no soldiers, for
the military force had been withdrawn.
Mrs. Julia M'Nair Wright, the author, savs about
Mrs. A. R. MTarland 203
this : " Perhaps the Church at home never had a
greater surprise than when it heard that work in
Alaska was begun, and a Christian, cultivated woman
left there to carry it on.
" ' What ! ' was the cry that met Dr. Jackson,
*did you leave Mrs. M'Farland up there alone
among all those heathen, up there in the cold, on
the edge of winter?' 'Yes,' was the reply,
* I did. And she has neither books, nor school-
house, nor helpers, nor money, nor friends — only a
few converted but untaught Indians, and a great
many heathen about her. Now what will you do
for her ? ' " The situation was really awakening.
Dr. Jackson's words and Mrs. M'Farland's inter-
esting letters finally bore fruit, and money was
raised for a home for the girls who were orphans,
or who were rescued from worse than orphanhood.
Among the girls first received into the home
were Tillie Kinnon, then fifteen, and Fannie Wil-
lard, both of whom became missionaries to their
own people in due time, and have been well known
in this country as well as their own.
One day two girls from the school were captured
and accused of witchcraft, which meant torture,
and perhaps death. The natives were having a
" devil dance " when Mrs. M'Farland set out to face
them and rescue the girls. Her scholars implored
her not to go. " They will kill you," they cried.
Her interpreter embraced her with agonizing tears
and tried to hold her back, but, while even the con-
verted Indians feared to go near, the intrepid woman
went alone, faced the half-insane dancers with no
204 Fifty Missionary Heroes
show of fear, demanded the release of the girls,
threatening the men with United States' vengeance,
and using every imaginable argument and plea.
After some hours thus spent, she had her way.
One of the rescued girls was afterwards caught and
put to death, but the other was saved. At another
time she had a terrible experience in facing a
charge of witchcraft made upon one of her girls,
but she stood her ground and saved the girl. When
the money for a permanent building for the M'Far-
land Home was actually forthcoming, the mission-
ary wrote, " There has been a song in my heart ever
since the mail arrived, telling of the response to the
call for funds. I felt sure that if we trusted Him
God would, in good time, send the help we so much
needed."
In 1878 Dr. S. Hall Young came to the field,
where he has been so usefully engaged ever since,
with the fearlessness and boundless enthusiasm that
has outlasted his young manhood. He relieved
Mrs. M'Farland whenever he could, taking the
teaching work, while she, called "The Mother,"
trained the scholars in cooking, washing, ironing,
mending, and all housewifely arts. Mrs. Young
also taught, after her arrival, till the coming of Miss
Dunbar to be a permanent assistant. So the help
ers came, one by one.
After twenty years' service, Mrs. M'Farland cam^
home, broken in health, yet able to tell to many thfe
inspiring story of Alaska Missions, till she " fell
on sleep " October 19, 1912.
XLYIII
SHELDON JACKSON
'Pathfinder and Prospector in the Bocky Mountains and
Apostle to Alaska {1858-1909)
A MAN must needs be a hero to be worthy
of such a long title as that. Do you not
agree ? But you will think that he earned
it, if you will try to count up half the things that
he did, and endured, in
over fifty years of home
missionary work, and in
nearly a million miles
of travel, filled with the
wildest adventures and
escapes imaginable. In-
deed, you could not im-
agine them if you tried,
and therefore you must
hear about them.
The baby who was to become such a wonderful
travelling missionary, saw the light in the little vil-
lage of Minaville, in the Mohawk Yalley, New
York State, May 18, 1834. His mother's maiden
name being joined to his father's, he became Shel-
don Jackson. He had two narrow escapes as an
infant, once being saved from rolling into the big
fireplace with logs ablaze, and once being carried
from the house which was ablaze.
205
2o6 Fifty Missionary Heroes
While Sheldon was still a baby, the father, Mr.
Jackson, removed, with his wife and child, to Esper-
ance, ten miles from Minaville, between Albany and
Buffalo. Here, when the little boy was about four,
the parents united with the Presbyterian Church,
and afterwards dedicated the child to God in bap-
tism, and, in their own hearts, consecrated him to
the ministry. The boy himself grew up with no
other thought in his mind, and while he was a
" genuine boy " and had fun as other boys did, the
expectation of being a minister, kept him from some
boyish follies that he would have been sorry for
afterwards. He said so himself, and thankfully,
too. Very early the thought of being a minister
was joined, in the boy's mind, with the hope of be-
coming a missionary.
When he was six, his father's health caused him
to give up his business and move to a farm in
Florida County, where the son grew up in a " house
of plenty," and a happy home, giving most of his
time to study, but helping with the chores. For
eighteen years the family kept up membership in
the Esperance church, and week by week, drove to
service over a rough and hilly road, often blocked
with snow in winter for weeks at a time. With
breakfast over at daylight in winter, the start was
made, the buffalo robes, ax, shovel, lunch basket
and all, packed in, with hot soapstones and thick
oak planks. Lunch was eaten at noon, but the
family did not get home on short days till dark„
Sometimes they were upset in the drifts, but they
always got out somehow, and nobody minded.
Sheldon Jackson 207
From his early childhood the boy Sheldon was
familiar with stories of the Indian wars in the
Mohawk and Schoharie Yalleys of New York ; and
the fascinating histories of David Brainerd, and
David Zeisberger, and their Indian work, charmed
him. Besides these, he had Bunyan's "Pilgrim's
Progress," Washington Irving's works, and some
of Walter Scott's stories to read. He enjoyed these
very much, and early began to dream dreams of
the great world outside, and to see visions of what
was to be done, while wondering what his part
would be.
At fifteen, the boy went to an academy at Glen
Falls, N. Y., and afterwards to Union College,
Schenectady, where he was " a conscientious stu-
dent and a delightful companion." At nineteen,
the young man was received into the church, and
three months later, largely through his influence,
his only sister took her stand with him. At this
time seemed to begin that great longing to help
others and win them for his Master, which became
his passion by and by.
This hero in the making, who was afterwards to
brave perils by land and sea and snow, was far
from being an athlete, and was never trained in
what is called " the manly art of self-defense." As
a lad he was slender, physically small, often suf-
fered in health, and was troubled with weak eyes.
He was naturally averse to " rough and tumble "
exercise, and his fitness for the mastery in dealing
with Indians, with roughs in mining camps, and
the frontiers far and near, did not depend upon
2o8 Fifty Missionary Heroes
physical prowess. In the fortieth year of his
unique missionary work, somebody described Dr.
Jackson as " short, bewhiskered, and spectacled, but
by inside measurement a giant." Anybody who
tried to combat him, found him a " giant inside,"
but with a heart tender as a woman's. He never
knew what it was to give up when he knew he was
right, and wanted to win his way.
One time at a meeting the one in charge thought
that a great giant of a Tennessean near, was Dr.
Jackson who was about to speak, and introduced
him as "My stalwart friend from the Eockies."
When the little doctor appeared almost everybody
laughed, and so did he, saying, " If I had been
more stalwart in height I could not have slept so
many nights on the four-and-a-half -foot seat of a
Kocky Mountain stage." Maybe it was his capacity
for doubling up, that made a stage-driver say of him
once, " He was the hardiest and handiest traveller
I ever was acquainted with."
Four days before his twenty-third birthday, the
student was licensed to preach, and for a few
months served for the American Systematic Be-
nevolence Society. But his heart was set on for-
eign missions, and he offered himself to the Board,
hoping to be sent to Syria or Siam, or to South
America. But the examining doctor said that his
health would not allow him to go. " They thought
I was not strong," he said himself, " but I had an
iron constitution, with the exception of dyspepsia."
Some folk would have thought dyspepsia a big
enough exception to excuse a man from frontier
Sheldon Jackson 209
workj but not so Sheldon Jackson. Later, a friend
wrote of him, " Compared with what he has done,
work in Siam would have been * flowery beds of
ease.' He can endure more hardship, travel, ex-
posure, and hard work this minute, than half the
college football players, and looks ten years younger
than his sixty-four years." This is getting ahead
of our story, but you won't mind. It seems to
come in here, with the refusal to send the young
man to the foreign field.
Work among the Indians, in Indian Territory,
was the first that offered after the seminary course
at Princeton was finished, and the young minister
was ordained. On his twenty-fourth birthday he
was married, and, on the wedding journey, the
bridal pair met the rest of the Jackson family at
Niagara Falls, on their way to Galesburg, Illinois,
a new college town that had grown up on the
prairie, and was then " just twenty -one."
The work among the Ghoctaws, and representa-
tives of other tribes, was very arduous, and Mrs.
Jackson, besides helping in many ways, substituting
for teachers, keeping the house, and so on, found
her hands full and her time, too, with " keeping the
little Indians in repair."
Serious illnesses, and other circumstances, con.
vinced Mr. Jackson that he should undertake more
varied work, and in due time he was commissioned
to a parish 13,000 miles square, being given over-
sight, as a home missionary, of Minnesota, and Wis-
consin almost wholly, with nineteen preaching-
Dlaces in Minnesota alone, a hundred miles apart.
210 Fifty Missionary Heroes
A salary of three hundred dollars was his recom-
pense for all this labour, "in journeyings oft,"
averaging for one quarter, thirteen and one-half
miles a day, horseback or afoot. His escapes from
freezing, in fierce blizzards and huge snow-drifts,
would make a chapter by themselves at this time.
But he did not freeze — save fingers and toes, or per-
haps his nose, and he thawed out, and went on with
this pioneer work.
We can't follow this active man step by step,
but shall have to take flying leaps. We next find
him engaged in a larger field, and more general
work. It began in Iowa, and, before it was fully
planned, came the Hilltop Prayer-meeting, which
ought to be remembered as a companion to the
Haystack Prayer-meeting long before. Mr. Jack-
son and two minister-friends, went up to the top of
a very high bluff called Prospect Hill, on the edge
of Sioux City, Iowa, there to look over the land.
Part of Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minne-
sota were visible. Beyond, stretched nine terri-
tories, for California was then the only state west
of the Missouri River, and farther on was Alaska.
It was a field of 1,768,659 square miles, almost half
the United States, with tens of thousands of Indians,
with demon-worshipping Eskimos, with pagan or
half pagan races beyond count.
The hearts of the three on the hilltop were moved
to cry out to God to lead those who had power, to
send out missionaries to this great field. Soon after
this sacred hour, Mr. Jackson was appointed Super-
intendent of Missions for Western Iowa, Nebraska,
Sheldon Jackson 211
Idaho, Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Utah, and
as far beyond as the jurisdiction of the Presbytery
of Iowa might extend.
Now began the million mile journey of the Path-
finder. " He went, on horseback or afoot, over un-
speakable roads, bumping along in ox carts, by
buckboard, stage, with mule team, by broncho,
reindeer sledge, lumber wagon, ambulance, by
freight or construction train, by dugout, launch,
steamer, canoe, revenue-cutter or cattle-ship."
" Five times the stage was robbed just before he
passed over the route ; once there was only the mo-
tion of a finger between him and death, as a half
dozen revolvers were pointed at him ; once he es-
caped scalping by the Apaches by a few hours ;
again he went unharmed, when his steamer was fired
into by hostile Indians ; again a fanatical papal
mob threatened his life, and once he was imprisoned
for the GospeFs sake, and set free by the Presi-
dent."
Under the trees, under the stars, in log huts, in
miners' camps, in dugouts and sod houses, the mis-
sionary went preaching and visiting, and organizing
churches.
A good part of the time he collected the money
needed. What he called " The Eaven Fund," for
supply of pressing needs, mounted into the thou-
sands. Nothing discouraged the dauntless soul.
Where he heard the call of need he went, with
fearless faith and indomitable courage. Eailways
and stage lines gave him free transportation for
long journeys, thinking it a good investment For
212 Fifty Missionary Heroes
a long time his family lived in Denver, and he
made sixteen round trips, to and from his home, in
five years.
And now the call came to far Alaska. The ex-
ploring tour, with unimaginable dangers and terri-
fying difl&culties was made, in spite of discouraging
views of the majority, who thought there was no
use in it, and no hope in it. But Dr. Jackson knew
better, and was neither dismayed nor delayed by
what people thought. He opened mission stations ;
he took Mrs. M'Farland from Portland to be the
first woman worker in that strange field. He even
went to Point Barrow, the northernmost place, where
Siberia could be seen in the distance, and founded
a mission there, where there are twenty-four days
of night, and the mail comes once a year.
Government made him General Superintendent
of Education in Alaska.
And now listen to the story of the reindeer. In
pity for the poor Eskimos, and with a wise thought
for their help. Dr. Jackson, after great efforts and
prodigious discouragements, finally imported rein-
deer from Siberia, with native herders, and, after
proving that it could be done, received government
aid. Now these animals, that find their own food
in the moss under the snow, and can travel where
dogs cannot, and can furnish food and skin-clothing
also, have proved such a boon to Alaska that Dr.
Jackson would be remembered had he done nothing
else. His heroic life ended in 1909.
XLIX
BOLL-CALL OF LIVING HEEOES
DO you think for one instant that the heroio
souls, ready to do and dare everything
with dauntless courage, have all passed
away, having finished their work ? You cannot think
so, for you know better. ^' The workman dies, but
the work goes on,'^ because God has always a worker
ready to take it up and carry it on. There are
thousands of intrepid missionaries, at home and
abroad, to answer to a roll-call of living heroes.
The Hst of the heroes of the past is very long and we
need to know the names and deeds of those who toiled
in the beginning, and laid foundations. That is the
reason that in the study of missions we begin with
those who have gone before. The Lord Christ says
to those now upon the field, " Other men laboured,
and ye have entered into their labours." We ought
to know the whole story, and put it together in the
right way. This is one good reason for making a
long list of names that belong to the past. Another
is that, for the present, every one of us has a chance
to see for ourselves what the heroes are doing in
the world. History is in the making, and we can
watch the process. The more we know of the
beginnings, the more wiU we care to w^atch the
progress of things. Every wide-awake young
213
214 Fifty Missionary Heroes
person will care to do this. One who does not
" care " in these days, must surely be asleep, and
would better wake up at once, for fear of missing
the splendid things that are going by, and going
on.
In order to suggest the looking up of those whose
acquaintance we ought to make in the present,
suppose we call the names of a very few of the
living, now in easy reach. And then — since a large
hbrary would not hold them, suppose every reader
takes pains to add to the list for private use. What
a superb thing it will be, in the end. The search
itself will be stimulating, and very easy, too. If
you give ever so little attention to the matter, you
simply cannot help seeing and hearing something
about present-day heroes and heroines, and the more
you give, the more worth while and thrilling it will
grow to be.
To make a beginning, let us take the name of
William Duncan
<^ The Hero of Metldkahtla ''
Think of the young travelling salesman in London,
giving up his excellent position to go to preach
Christ to the Indians of British Columbia. He
spent months in reaching Alaska ; he repeated his
first sermon nine times in one day ; he founded a
Christian Temperance village in Alaska ; he was
followed by hundreds of Indians to the settlement
of Metlakahtla, and then to Annette Island, all of
whom signed a covenant not to drink, swear, break
the Sabbath, cheat, lie^ or do any such unchristiaD
Roll-Call of Living Heroes 215
thing. Everybody goes to church in Mr. Duncan's
colony.
Eev. Charles Cook
Missionary to the Pima Indians
This is another living hero, who, in 1870, hearing
from an army officer the sad condition of the Pimas,
gave up his German church in Chicago, and, with-
out money enough for the whole journey, or any
pledged support, set out to help the poor Indians.
He took a Bible, a rifle, a small melodeon, and some
cooking utensils with him, and for a long time was
self-supporting. Now the largest church in Sacaton
is that of the Pimas, with over five hundred mem-
bers, and it is one of seven or more, gathered by
Mr. Cook.
Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell
" The Hero of Labrador "
This missionary doctor has a parish of over 2,000
miles of storm-swept coast along the Northern
Atlantic. He goes his rounds among his fisher-folk
by boat and dog- train, according to the season ; and,
no matter what the storm or peril by land or sea,
he answers each call of distress, at any cost. He
" goes about doing good," as his Master did, and
with an abounding joy in the work that is conta«
gious. He has been decorated by his appreciative
English Government.
Bishop Eg we
Diocese of Alaska^ Protestant Episcopal Church
" From Ketchikan in the South, to St. John's in
the Wilderness, beyond the Arctic ^.^iicle, the good
2l6 Fifty Missionary Heroes
Bishop has set a chain of twenty mission stations,
including hospitals and reading rooms." His work
means perilous mountain climbing, ice-baths at un-
expected times and places, long runs on snow-shoes,
ahead of his dog-sledge, and many a night in a
hollowed-out snow-bed, under the stars and flaming
Northern Lights.
Helpers Farthest North
We cannot even imagine what it has meant to
hold the mission stations at Point Barrow, and St.
Lawrence Island, with mail but once a year, or
twice at most. There it took a year or two for a
broken sewing-machine shuttle to be replaced, and
other supplies must take time in proportion ; there,
in the long Arctic night, native children must be
roused from sleep to come to school, by bell or
knock, and must flounder through the snow to the
mission house at w^hat would be nine o'clock in the
morning for us. Dr. and Mrs. Marsh, Dr. and Mrs.
Spriggs, Dr. and Mrs. Campbell, ought to be more
than mere names to us, as we associate them with
these regions farthest north.
Miss Kate M'Beth
Missionary and Theological Instructor Among the
Nez Perces
Following her heroic sister, Susan M'Beth, who
trained such noble young Indians for the ministry
among their own people, Miss Kate still lives and
labours with indomitable courage and enthusiasm,
among the red men of the Far West. The students
Roll-Call of Living Heroes 217
she has trained have acquitted themselves creditably
in severe examinations, and have been faithful and
fruitful in service, in many fields.
Miss Mary Keed
Missionary to Lepet^s in India
The world that remembers Father Damien's iso-
lation of himself for sake of service among the out-
cast lepers, cannot forget this gentle, but lion-
hearted woman, still living, loving and labouring
among the same class. Few have not heard of her
discovery of the disease in her own body, when
home on furlough from her India field, and the
heroic leave-taking without a kiss of good-bye, as
she returned to devote herself to the lepers, sharing
her secret with one sister only, that she might ex-
plain afterwards, the dread reason for the sudden
departure from home and friendsc
Dr. Mary Stone
Native Medical Missionary in Kiu Kiang, China
Imagine a frail little woman of less than a hun-
dred pounds avoirdupois, with a parish of many
thousand souls — and bodies, with no other physician
to minister to their bitter needs with medical and
surgical skill. Hear the secret of her marvellous
endurance, unfaltering courage, and loving service :
*' How is it," asked a friend, " that you can pos-
sibly bear the tremendous responsibilities that rest
on you all the time, and keep on with your work,
day after day ? " This was her answer : " I could
2l8 Fifty Missionary Heroes
not keep up or keep on, but for the fact that every
morning, before the duties begin, I manage some-
how, to get a look into the Face of Jesus first, and
everything grows easy then."
De. Samuel A. Moffett
Pioneer Missionary to Pyeng Yang, Korea
The Central Church in this, the largest city of
the Land of Chosen, has sent out thirty-nine other
churches in a period of fifteen years. In the home
church, a congregation of over fifteen hundred on
the Sabbath day and from nine hundred to a thou-
sand at the mid-week prayer-meeting, is the ordi-
nary thing. When Dr. Moffett began his pioneer
work, which now shows such marvellous growth,
he was mobbed and stoned, and every effort was
made to drive him from the city. As he passed
along the streets of " the oldest and wickedest city
in the land," as it was then called, men and boys
shouted after him, " Look at this black rascal.
Why did he come here ? Let us kill him." But
they could not kill or exile him, and he has lived
to see one of those who threw stones at him, be-
come an earnest Christian helper. The intrepid
missionary is still " in labours more abundant."
Dr. Maey p. Eddy
Of Syria
This wonderful woman, the first to be recognized
and allowed to practice as a physician by the Turk-
ish government, still goes her lounds of mercy and
Roll-Call of Living Heroes 215
healing with superb courage and utter self=forget-
fulness. It would be hard to count up the lives
saved, and the souls won by her years of devoted
service. Her more recent enterprise has been the
founding of a sanatorium among the pines, for cast-
aways, and helpless if not hopeless cases. Here
she has invested all her own savings, and uses her
monthly stipend for the place, and pitiful patients.
She prays that before she dies, she may see her
hope for a permanent home fulfilled. Her sight is
failing, and she can barely see to write her letters
of appeal, but she says : " I am going to keep on
doing and working, just as dear Dr. Samuel Jessup
did, until the end comes, or my labours are no
longer needed for these destitute sufferers."
li^ SiAM AND Laos
It has been said that this field is second only in
importance and opportunity at present to Korea.
We ought to associate some names with this part
of the Orient. There is Dr. M'Kean who is toiling
persistently and heroically for the poor lepers,
hitherto neglected. And Dr. Cort is investing his
life without stint, day and night, under mountains
of difficulty. Dr. Briggs is another name that
stands for unmeasured service, and Eev. J. H. Free-
man has been exploring new sections of the field.
How many can you add to this suggestive roll,
Of those afar and near, who pay the hero's t^ll ?
MISSION AEY SAYi:NrGS
That Have Become Classic
PEAYER and pains, through faith in Jesus
Christ, will do anything. — John Eliot.
We are playing at Missions. — Alexander
Duff.
!N"ow let me burn out for God. — Henry Martyn.
The prospects are bright as the promises of God.
—Adoniram Judson.
The end of the exploration is the beginning of
the enterprise. — David Livingstone,
I have seen in the morning sun, the smoke of a
thousand villages where no missionary has ever
been. — Bohert Moffat.
Expect great things from God ; attempt great
things for God.— William Carey.
I'll teU the Master. — Eliza Agnew.
The word discouragement is not in the dictionary
of the kingdom of heaven. — Melinda Rankin.
Let us advance on our knees. — Joseph Hardy
Neesima.
The world is my parish. — John Wesley,
Keep to work ; if cut off from one thing take the
next. — Cyrus Hamlin.
I die for the Baganda, and purchase the road to
Cganda with my life. — Bishop Hannington,
2 20
Missionary Sayings 221
I will go down, but remember that you must
hold the ropes. — William Carey.
God helping me, I will go myself. — Melinda
Rankin.
We can do it if we will. — Samuel J. Mills.
Oh, that I could dedicate my all to God. This
is all the return I can make Him. — David Brainerd.
AUTHOEITIES CONSULTED
In Freparing Sero-Sketches
" Great Men of the Christian Church," Professor
Williston Walker, of Yale.
" Saints and Heroes," Dr. Hodge.
"Life of Dr. John Paton," edited by his son^
Rev. James Paton.
" Life of Dr. Marcus Whitman," Eev. Myron
Eels.
" Life of Dr. Sheldon Jackson," Rev. Robert
Laird Stewart.
" Life of Dr. Calvin Wilson Mateer," Rev. D. W.
Fisher, D. D„
" Servants of the King," Dr^ Robert E. Speer.
" Cyclopedia of Missions," Dwight, Tupper and
Bliss.
" Who^s Who in Missions," Belle Brain.
Three volumes, " Missionary Annals."
" Effective Workers in Needy Fields," five
writers — Drs. M'Dowell, Mackay, Oldham, Cree-
gan and Davis.
The Missionary Review.
Also — Mission Board leaflets, press gleaningSj
private letters, and personal reminiscences.
Printed ^n the United States of Ameri':9
DATE DUE
CAYLORO
1 PRINTEDINU.S.A.
BANGOR THEOLOGICftL SEIIINflRV
Fifty missionary heroes every b
nOUB 922 J644f
3 4HDL DDDL fli37 3
922
J6^f
Johnston, Julia H.
AUTHOR
Fifty missionary heroes every hoy
TITLE
and girl should know
DATE DUE
BORROWERS NAME
'^Ihn
Whittemore Assocmres, mc
16 ASHBURTON PL.
BOSTON 8. MASS.
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